Understanding Project Management Fundamentals

This assignment delves into fundamental concepts of project management, specifically examining budget creation and stakeholder analysis. It outlines methods for determining project costs, allocating budgets across various functions, and controlling expenditures to ensure financial efficiency. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of identifying stakeholders, understanding their influence, and applying the RACI matrix for effective stakeholder engagement in project planning.

FUNDAMENTALS
OF
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................4
1. Defining the project in terms of results and objectives...............................................................4
2. Project SMART objectives..........................................................................................................5
3. Specifying the scope of project....................................................................................................6
4. Scheduling the delivery of the project with Gantt chart, breakdown of all activities, and
showing the critical path and identifying the key milestones.........................................................7
5. Providing a cost estimation for the project which can be delivered in the given budget..........10
6. Critically analysing the project stakeholders.............................................................................12
7. Assessing the project procurement strategies...........................................................................14
8. Critically analysing the uncertainties that may impact the project objectives by developing a
risk register.....................................................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................15
SECTION II: REFLECTIVE ESSAY................................................................................................16
References..........................................................................................................................................18
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Project management is the employment of learning, skills, tools and techniques to project
functions to attain the needs of project. The project management is important approach that looks
after the planning, organizing and employment of a project. It can be defined as undertaking with
particular beginning and finish parameters developed to render a particular result from ongoing
processes like, administration program etc. For the proper completion a work undertaken by a
company, it is important for it to consider project management techniques. Every activity carried
out in the organization is part of project. In this report, SMART objectives will be framed for t he
proper completion of the project. The main objective of Dropbox is to increase the customer
satisfaction level related to products and services offered by brand. Further, budget play important
role in assuring success of project. It assure the cost incurred in project does not exceed the profits
availed from it. Thereafter, stakeholder are those individual or parties that have interest or stake in
the organization therefore they must be kept satisfied by involving in major decision regarding
project management.
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INTRODUCTION
Project management is the discipline of beginning, planning, executing, controlling and
closing the work of a team to attain particular goals and attain certain success benchmarks.
(Kerzner, 2013). In this report, various aspects of project management will be studied in the context
of provided case study of Project plus. It is advisory company that is expert in project and
programme management consultancy. The organization holds specialized skills in implementing the
systems and processes for project planning, risk management, advantage realisation, project
reporting etc. In this report, the project will be defined in terms of results and purpose. The SMART
objectives for the project will be clarified. Thereafter, project scope will be specified. In this report,
critical analysis of the uncertainties that may impact the project objectives by developing a risk will
be provided.
TASK 1
1. Defining the project in terms of results and objectives
From the provided case scenario, it has been ascertained Project Plus is linked with three
organization, Tesla Motors, GE Healthcare and Drop Box for providing project management
consultancy services to help in launching their fresh offerings in the UK market. The
aforementioned companies contacted by Project Plus are operating in different industries such as
automotive, healthcare and could technology. With the help of services offered by Project Plus, can
improve their knowledge and enable improved customer focus (Schwalbe, 2015).
For further business and growth opportunities, Project Plus can pay consideration on the
alliance with Drop box. It is renowned company that is launching a new encryption functionality
services to their business focussed buyers, for extremely sensitive data file storage, transfer and
sharing. Project Plus will help Drop box in offering its new product in UK market. The business,
social and environmental needs in terms of objectives and results for the corporate customer of
Project Plus by managing the product launch event in UK market are as follows.
 Introduction of brands new cloud computing service in a prime location of London during
daytime and evening on date January, 2nd 2017, Monday.
 Assuring the participation of the event by at least 500 people where whole launch program
will be broadcast live over the internet.
 The company will get the vital exposure by various established media outlets.
 In the course of the launch event, few types of amusement and recreational programs will
organize that will be appropriate for making the product launch program memorable.
 To manage the catering facility for the attendants of the launch event.
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 Arrange a separate area for VIP people.
 Set up coordination between various events carrying out functions such as logistic
necessitate, involving enrolment, managing the crowd and assuring proper health and safety.
 Encouraging the product launch event of Drop Box with appropriate media channels and
assemblage of concerned masses.
 Executing entire product launch event of Drop box within the defined budget of £150,000
by justifying various outlay.
The features of new cloud computing services launched by Drop Box are resources pooling
and elasticity, self service provisioning, easy to take backup of information, easy to share files,
broad network access etc.
2. Project SMART objectives
The SMART is acronym, that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time
bound goals of company that further help in providing direction to the overall efforts of
management of entity. The objectives must be framed after considering the overall vision and
mission of business. The project objectives can be defined as results of project which are developed
for long, short or medium term (Mir and Pinnington, 2014). The main benefit of setting SMART
objective is that, it will provide clarity and focus in what the company is doing. The SMART
objectives can be stated as road map to the final destination of business. By setting the SMART
objectives, company can determine it have proper resources to attain its overall purpose or not.
Therefore, these objectives will be developed by entity, project manager, client firm etc. They are as
follows:
SMART objectives for Project Plus
 To enhance customer contentment level of Corporate customer, Dropbox to 30% within the
3 months after the launching of new offering of brand in January 2017.
 To intensify marker share of consultancy services of business in the home country by 25%
within 3 months. To assure increase in sales of project advisory services from 10% at present to 20% after the
closure of first quarter of 2017 .
SMART objectives for Project Manager of Project Plus
 By focusing on budget, the undertaken work should be accomplished within £150,000 only
by the last of product launch event in January 2017. Project should be completed within the 1 month by accomplishing the leading project
objectives till 2nd January, 2017.
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SMART objectives for DropBox and other key stakeholders
 To get the increased valuable exposure from acknowledged media sources after conclusion
of product launch event on 2nd January, 2017.
 To increase the sales of cloud services by 22% to 25% after launching a new service in the
UK with the end of January, 2017.
 To assure alliance with more corporate customers; minimum 10 within 6 months.
3. Specifying the scope of project
From the provided case scenario, it has been assessed that Project Plus is planning to assist
its client Drop box for facilitating the launch of new offerings in the market . For this aspect, the
entity is needed to develop a Project plan wherebxy the project scope will be determined (Burke,
2013). The scope will help in setting the boundaries of project to limit the wastage of efforts etc. in
this respect, following aspect can be considered for launch event of Dropbox.
Project scope:
Dropbox is planning to introduce new services which will help service users to store
extremely delicate and confidential data files, along with their sharing and transfer. The new
encoding practicality service will safeguard the of the prospective customers from any sort of cyber
crime. The following event will explain various benefits of new services of Dropbox to the audience
so that they can stimulate the buyers to acquire new cloud computing services (Turner, 2016).
Instead of this, project limit are a component of project scope where various attributes of
project plan can be assessed. Thereafter, project limitations help in understanding various aspects
like, the factors that must be involved or areas that can be avoided in plan. It aid the project
decision maker to identify the key project deliverables and purpose of plan (Jeston and Nelis, 2014).
With regards to the prospective product launch event, project limit can be such as:
Project Includes: In the consideration to the SMART objectives, project end results, milestones and
the accompanying sub functions, characteristic of new offerings of brand, involvement of
stakeholders, duty and obligation, leading deliverables, customer satisfaction level and scope of
work.
Project Excludes: There will few aspect that will not be considered in the project and will be part of
exclusion criteria. Such as
 The launch event of Drop box will not promote any other old or upcoming product of
Dropbox or other companies at the launching day.
 The staff or shareholders of Drop box will not be part of any decision making process at the
launching day.
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4. Scheduling the delivery of the project with Gantt chart, breakdown of all activities, and showing
the critical path and identifying the key milestones
Figure 1 Critical path of project
Figure 2 Gantt Chart
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors Resource name
DropBox product launch project 22 days Wed
11/30/16
Thu
12/29/16
Planning 7 days Wed
11/30/16
Thu
12/8/16
Market feasibility 2 days Wed
11/30/16
Thu 12/1/16 Project
manager,
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Project
consultant
Find Dropbox needs regarding
new service launch event 3 days Fri 12/2/16 Tue 12/6/16 3
Project
manager
Searching of vendors 1 day Wed
12/7/16
Wed
12/7/16 4
Project
consultant,
Project
manager
Developing project teams 1 day Thu 12/8/16 Thu 12/8/16 5
Project
manager
Executing 5 days Thu
12/8/16
Wed
12/14/16
Project plan activities setting 3 days Thu 12/8/16 Mon
12/12/16 5
Financial
manager,
Project
manager
Book venue in London for
event by considering number of
expected guests
1 day Fri 12/9/16 Fri 12/9/16 6
Project
consultant,
Project
manager
Selecting catering vendor 2 days Tue
12/13/16
Wed
12/14/16 8
Project
manager,
Risk assessor
Inform Dropbox about the
project plan progress 3 days Mon
12/12/16
Wed
12/14/16 9
Project
manager
Monitoring 6 days Thu
12/15/16
Thu
12/22/16
Establishing and maintaining
contractual relationship with
suppliers
3 days Thu
12/15/16
Mon
12/19/16 10
IT engineer,
Project
manager,
Software
developer
Project plan review 2 days Tue
12/20/16
Wed
12/21/16
13 Project
manager,
8

Software
developer
Implement correcting activities 1 day Thu
12/22/16
Thu
12/22/16 14
Project
consultant,
Project
manager,
Quality
analyst,
Software
developer
Project closure 5 days Fri
12/23/16
Thu
12/29/16
Obtaining feedback from
business client 2 days Fri
12/23/16
Mon
12/26/16 15
IT engineer,
Project
consultant,
Project
manager,
Risk
assessor,
Software
developer
Closing of contracts 2 days Tue
12/27/16
Wed
12/28/16 17
Project
consultant,
Project
manager,
Quality
analyst ,Soft
ware
developer
Project sign off 1 day Thu
12/29/16
Thu
12/29/16 18
Project
manager,
Quality
analyst
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Milestone of project plan
Task Name Duration Start Finish
DropBox product launch project 22 days Wed 11/30/16 Thu 12/29/16
Planning 7 days Wed 11/30/16 Thu 12/8/16
Executing 5 days Thu 12/8/16 Wed 12/14/16
Monitoring 6 days Thu 12/15/16 Thu 12/22/16
Project closure 5 days Fri 12/23/16 Thu 12/29/16
5. Providing a cost estimation for the project which can be delivered in the given budget
Project budget can be defined as detailed estimation of all the cost needed to finish the
project task. The budget is regarded as fiscal amount that is utilized to perform out functions of
project programmed by the project executives (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra, 2013). It is a
elaborated approximation of all types of costing that required to finish the project plan in best
possible manner. Budget is developed at the beginning stage of project designing period by project
manager. The presented case scenario indicate that DropBox has sanctioned £150,000 to Project
Plus for managing the new product launch event which is planned to be organized on 2nd January
2017 in UK,London. For introduction of new offerings of the brand, the in charge of event of
Project Plus will compute a budget which is as preceded:
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Elements Cost in £
Employees
Consultant 1 (C1) 2500
Consultant 2 (C2) 2500
Consultant 3 (C3) 2500
Consultant 4 (C4) 2500
Consultant 5 (C5) 2500
Consultant 6 (C6) 2500
Probing and reservation venue in Auditorium at The Crystal, London for
organizing the service launch event
6500
Placing advertisement in various types of media information sources 2500
Live Broadcast of total service launch event on Internet 40000
Preparation and choice of catering services 3000
Event execution logistic requirements such as registration of services, crowd
control, health and safety etc.
5000
Encourage event by different sources 2800
Make preparation of proper sound and lighting facilities 5200
Conveyance of employees 2850
Set up and send invitations to the VIP guests 650
Few different Miscellaneous expenses 9800
Project Plus service fee 29000
Else Overhead costs 27700
Total 150,000
Work breakdown structure
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6. Critically analysing the project stakeholders
The stakeholder are those individual or parties that have direct interest in the working of the
company. They can impact or can be impacted by the functions of business enterprise. The
stakeholders must be involved in business decision making process so as to avoid their
dissatisfaction and thereby to maintain their interest level. As its inception that Dropbox is planning
to launch new encryption functionality service (Marchewka, 2014). Therefore, the interest of
various stakeholder must be considered so as to meet their expectation and needs. To facilitate this,
project stakeholders analysis can be considered where in RACI (Responsible, accountable,
consulted and informed) matrix will be used. This framework will further assist in figuring out the
significance of stakeholder to company.
Table 1RACI Matrix
Particulars Project C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 Power
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Manager
i.e. C1
or
interes
t
Studying the market A, I I I I Monito
r
Determination of DropBox requirements
associated to new commodity launch event
A, R R Keep
inform
ed
Identifying the supplier for catering business
A,R C C C Keep
satisfie
d
Deciding participants for project team
I I C A,
R
Monito
r
Planning main functions for project plan
A, C R C R C Keep
satisfie
d
Reservation of prime venue in London that is
appropriate for the launch event as and have
facilities according to 500 expected guests
A, R C I I Monito
r
Choice of catering service provider R C A I R Keep
inform
Communicating the client company about the
progress in project plan
I A,
R
Monito
r
Set up and keeping the contractual terms with
suppliers
A, I R A C Keep
inform
Project plan reassessment I A I R Keep
inform
Employing correcting activities A R C I Monito
r
Acquiring feedback from Dropbox and
participants of events
A, R Monito
r
Termination of contracts A,C A C I
Project sign off A R R R R I
7. Assessing the project procurement strategies
Project procurement can be defined as method that is adopted to obtain product and services.
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The main feature of this approach is that, it consider range of procurement functions executed out
during the implementation of a project. It further help in understanding the way through which
company obtains supply for project (Alotaibi and Mafimisebi, 2016) The project procurement has
originated from the need of organizations to outsource their critical functions to a expert company.
Since,it play important role in assuring the success of project, it is important for a company to adopt
proper procurement strategies. From the provided case scenario, it is evident that Drop box has
outsourced some services to Project Plus so as to support successful launch of its new offerings in
London market. In this respect well defined strategies can be used which will help in systematic
planning and implementation of project so as to assure that planned activities render the desired
results or not. In case of Drop box new service introduction event some of the important function
will be outsourced. For this aspect it is important for project executive to pay strong consideration
on the main purpose of event. The major task that will be outsources are, food arrangement
(catering), advertising, reservation of venue, lightning,sound, decoration etc.
For the successful completion of product launch event, it is required for the project manager
to identify different provider or merchandiser that can help it in different activities. It must assure
these vendor have good market reputation and provide quality services so as to maintain the brand
image of Drop box. Therefore, vendor rating technique can be considered by company. Initially,
plan procurement phase of vendor ranking technique will be done where the project manager will
determine those activities in the project plan is in reality required to be outsourced. Following this,
the procurement process will be started where Project Plus will advertise about the planned launch
event so as to inform and arouse the suppliers of different services to provide bid. After this, the
next function will be of managing procurements where entity will develop the short term relation
with the vendors so as to know them more and facilitate the selection of a effective provider of
services accordant to the budget of company. The closing stage of Vendor Rating Technique involve
Close Procurements where Project Plus will terminate the contracts with the vendors after wind-up
of Dropbox new service launch event.
Summing up the entire discussion, it can be stated that Vendor Rating Technique is
appropriate for Project Plus as it will enable the choice of best suppliers and provide input for the
success of launch event. Therefore, company will be able to enhance the satisfaction level of its
client company, Drop box and develop positive image in market.
8. Critically analysing the uncertainties that may impact the project objectives by developing a risk
register.
There are various uncertainties linked with the project that can impact its success and
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prevent its in attaining the desired objectives. The first and foremost risk is related to absence of the
desired resources. Du e to non availability of required funds, company may be forced to select the
suppliers not having satisfactory quality of offerings (Fassin, 2012). The another risk is lack of
adequate knowledge or experience among selected vendors and so on. In order to highlight the
uncertainties that can impact the purpose of project, consideration can be given on the use of risk
register. Risk register render project executives with a list of identified risk, clearly stated and
identified so that their significance for attaining project purpose. With the help of risk register, one
can plan different actions that will help in mitigating the risk. The uncertainties can also prevent the
company from attaining higher revenues therefore effective and clear risk identification procedure
with the aid of risk register will be performed.
Risk register
Figure 3 Risk register
CONCLUSION
Summing up the entire report, it can be concluded that with the aid of project management
approach, company can initiate,plan execute, control and end up the function of a team to acquire
particular objective and accomplish particular success benchmarks. The purpose of project under
this report was to launch the new encryption functionality of Drop Box in London. For this aspect,
the budget of £150,000 was finalized. With the help of SMART objectives the project manager was
able to develop, short, medium and long term goals of business. Thereafter, the project scope is
component of project planning that includes determination and documentation of list of particular
project objective deliverables, functions, cost and deadlines. Thereafter, stakeholders must be
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involved in project planning to maintain their interest with the company. The Gantt chart will assist
the project manager to position the functions of a project plan in accordance with the priorities so
that wok can accomplished within the designate and accessible resources. Thereafter, systematic
procurement strategies will help the Drop box in successful completion of the project and
attainment of project deliverables.
SECTION II: REFLECTIVE ESSAY
The existing study comprises of management consultancy report where written document
has been developed on DropBox organization which has connection to Project Plus for its
introduction of new encryption functionality for the customers of London, UK. The above report
was helpful for improvising my overall learning and in depth knowledge. With t he help of this
report I have developed understanding of several aspects. Such as, now I know how to develop
project scope. In addition to this aspect, I have acquired learning regarding the ways of determining
project scope, the key aspects that must be well thought out or avoided in this process etc. Earlier
of doing the current project, I lacked proper knowledge regarding project scope but after maneuver
of the existing report, I have enlightened various things related to this. It will assist me in
approaching time so as to determine a scope of any kind of project. Furthermore, I will claim that
leading deliverables with consider and leave out criteria. Thereafter, I have developed appropriate
learning regarding SMART objectives,there significance etc. Also,now I know how to specify
objectives of a plan in analytic way. Further, in the coming times, this knowledge I can employ on
framing SMART objectives for other project plan in order to acquire the desired result in best
possible manner.
This report,was helpful for building my knowledge regarding different project management
stages. It has involved some steps like, first, planning, organizing, employing, supervising and
controlling along with wind-up.. With the aid of project management phases, a project plan can be
developed easily so as to facilitate effective performance of work. With the consideration to this
aspect, I can check the advancement of plan with the period of time. Thereby I can claim that , I can
effectively create a project plan on any topic in future so that I can manage whole project in an
suitable way. In addition to this, project plan will help me to accomplished the assign activities as
per the planned activities.I have erudite different ways that can be considered for listing main
functions, Gantt Chart and network diagram etc. I
From the present research, I have gained the knowledge about what is the project budget and
how it creates to effective utilization of available funds. In the study, I have ascertained that how a
project handler reckon existing costs of functions and formulate a budget for the project plan. The
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learning added from this will help me in the approaching time to develop and apportion budge to
different functions of project plan. With the application of contrasting budget allotment techniques,
I will optimally utilise accessible funds and assure control over the disbursement so that plan can be
operated within the budget and avoid exceeding. Thereafter, I have gained knowledge the respect
stakeholder analysis to ascertain their power and impact on a project plan. With the assist of this, I
have added the learning that how one stakeholder curiosity and influence is different from the other
ones. Other than this, I have gained knowledge about the employment of RACI matrix in
stakeholder analysis with reference to the planned project. The added knowledge will resource in
forthcoming time respect analysis of stakeholders’ interest in the projects in impelling way by
exploitation of RACI matrix.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alotaibi, A.B. and Mafimisebi, O.P., 2016. Project Management Practice: Redefining Theoretical
Challenges in the 21st Century. Project Management,7(1).
Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Fassin, Y., 2012. Stakeholder management, reciprocity and stakeholder responsibility. Journal of
Business Ethics, 109(1), pp.83-96.
Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014. Business process management. Routledge.
Kerzner, H.R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P. and Malhotra, M.K., 2013. Operations management: processes and
supply chains. New York: Pearson.
Marchewka, J.T., 2014. Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project
management performance and project success.International Journal of Project
Management, 32(2), pp.202-217
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge..
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