Project Management Principles and Skills: A Case Study Analysis

This report analyses a case study on project management principles and skills. It discusses areas of research for better decision making, lack of project management skills seen in the case, and how project management principles could have benefitted the case.

Component 1: Individual
written report

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
Areas of research in order to help better decision making.....................................................3
Project management skills and principles and lack of the same seen in the case study........4
Critically analysing the aspects of the case which might have been benefitted using project
management principles...........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The project management refers to the discipline in respect to application of the
specific processes and principles which helps in initiating the project and completing it in a
desired manner. It requires making use of the specific knowledge and skills, tools and
techniques pertaining to the delivering value to the people or the business. This report is
based upon the case study in which implementation of the organization’s project is proposed.
Thus, it provides an insight into the various aspects and area of research which will help in
better decision making and the skills and principles which was there or lacking.
Areas of research in order to help better decision making
There were certain key areas which were essential to be taken into consideration as it
helps in undertaking better and improved decision making. The first and foremost important
aspect or area of research is to identify the problem or issue in detail what is club is currently
facing leading to identifying the alternative solutions attached to it. In addition to this,
analysis of the business benefits, costs and risks which is expected to be derived from it.
Erick Steiner must have firstly researched about the mixed fortune the club had and ticket
sales it made in addition to the weak financial position (Safapour, Kermanshachi and Jafari,
2020). He has planned for 3 distinct projects but he failed to effectively analyse the benefits it
will gain from all these three projects. Erick Steiner should have taken into consideration
financial aspect mainly in the context of cash inflow it will and the time period as well.
Through the way of making use of the various investment appraisal techniques would have
helped in determining the financial feasibility of the project. The techniques mainly involve
net present value (NPV), return on investment (ROI) and the payback period analysis. The
NPV would have helped in determining the present worth of the future cash inflow associated
with each of the project. This helps in knowing whether it is worth investment into the project
or not (Siziba and Hall, 2019). The ROI helps in determining the return that the project will
generate in comparison to the amount invested into the project. Higher the rate of return
better it is for the investment or the business. it helps in measuring the performance as it
evaluates the efficiency of an investment. At last, is the payback analysis which assist in
identifying the amount of tie it will take for the project to recover the amount of its
investment. This is the point at which the benefit starts to out-weigh the costs.
Thus, these are some of the critical research areas which if used by the Erick Steiner
will result into gaining better insight into the significance, profitability and economic
feasibility of the projects. Therefore, the financial analysis is required to be carried out in

order to help the decision makers in regard to making choice of the project or projects. This
research is basically based on the financial perspective which helps in effectively
understanding the benefits in the financial and numeric terms which is more reliable and
useful in undertaking the decision making process.
Project management skills and principles and lack of the same seen in the case study
By looking at the given case study, it has been identified that Erick Steiner have not
made use of the any of the project management skills which is essential for carrying out the
project and managing it effectively. In terms of principles, there were no clear set of goals
and objectives were set as everything was started altogether which resulted into incurring
huge cost with nil benefit. Further addition to this, proper documentation of the roles and
responsibilities of the people involved into the project (Project Management. 2021). Erick
Steiner failed to effectively identify the core objective or mission for the projects and just
invested the fund without formulating any plan associated with accomplishing the desired
targets. There was no such thing was done pertaining to who will manage the what, in
addition to this, Erick Steiner failed to prioritize the tasks or the activities which results into
making everything stating together without any schedule of its completion.
He also failed to effectively make use of its available resources which would have
otherwise, would have been utilized in a better and effective way through planning,
organising, selecting and the implementing it in the projects. This results into making it very
much clear that Erick Steiner have not met with any of the project management skills which
is considered to be essential in respect to the effective implementation of the project (12
Essential Project Management Skills. 2019). The most important skill which was missing was
communication skill as Erick Steiner have not communicate his intention or the project plan
to any of the key stakeholders while making improvement to his new acquired club as the
independent decision making has cost him a lot, as whatever improvement being done to the
club ha snot at all helped or supported into the growth of the club as there are additional
various requirements of the club which has been ignored. All the three project ideas which
were implemented were not working in favour and has consequently resulted into further
deteriorating the club. In addition to this, the cost management skills were also missing as the
builders started to work but because of the unclear instructions and specification for it along
with the poor weather and ground conditions, it resulted into limiting the progress and despite
of this fact, the builder was receiving the standing amount for the monthly payment as it was
stated in the quoted bill. Thus, under this situation as well, ineffective application of the
project management skills like cost management skill is identified.

Critically analysing the aspects of the case which might have been benefitted using project
management principles
Apart from the issues and the problems which has been identified in the case study,
there are certain ways through which those issues might have been avoided. This was
possible through the way of application of certain project management principles. The first is
the communication plan which involves communicating and interacting with the key
stakeholders about the important aspects of the project like the different project activities and
tasks involved into it, level and types of risks, issues and status both within the project team
and along with the other stakeholders (Jiménez, Afonso and Fernandes, 2020). This project
management principle is very much important as it involves keeping stakeholders engaged,
balancing coordination between the tasks and schedules, effectively carrying out the decision-
making and problem-solving activities, determining and solving out the conflicts and
escalating risks and issues. Thus, half of the important things associated with the project is
already incorporated into just one principle of communication plan. This process might be
little time-consuming but it is better than incurring failure or huge amount of losses.
Another principle which could have been used was the value delivery capabilities
which involves the project tools, processes and the procedures which will help in delivering
value to the customers and clients. This will include making use of the scheduling software,
an agile project methodology. The implementation of this principle might turn out to be
expensive but would have resulted into generating long term future benefits (Buganová and
Šimíčková, 2019). This would have benefitted int structuring the implementation process and
procedures which helps in successfully completing the project within the defined time span.
In addition to this, Erick Steiner failed meet with the risk management principle as he
executed the projects without taking into consideration the potential risks it might be facing
like the technology, processes. This process can be little bit tough and time taking but is
worth it, as it involves identifying, evaluating and monitoring of risk based upon which action
plans are undertaken to mitigate or reduce it. Therefore, these are the certain point of actions
which involves the implementation of the project management principle in respect to gaining
success and the desired outcome from the project.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarized from the above that project management is a combination of
various principles, tools and techniques which is used by the project manager or the
individual in effectively carrying out the project. With respect to the given case study, Erick

Steiner was not able analyze the potential outcome of the investment made by him. This
turned out be a big failure for him as he was not in the position to effectively identify the
associated risk types and level of threat or danger it can pose. In addition to this, no backup
plan was developed. Also, Erick Steiner did not communicate about the intended projects
ideas with the other interested stakeholders which resulted into affecting the desired
outcomes. Therefore, project management is crucial for the determining and ensuring success
to the project proposed.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Buganová, K. and Šimíčková, J., 2019. Risk management in traditional and agile project
management. Transportation Research Procedia. 40. pp.986-993.
Jiménez, V., Afonso, P. and Fernandes, G., 2020. Using agile project management in the
design and implementation of activity-based costing systems. Sustainability. 12(24).
p.10352.
Philbin, S. P., 2017, October. Investigating the Application of Project Management Principles
to Research Projects–An Exploratory Study. In Proceedings of the 38th American
Society for Engineering Management (ASEM) International Annual Conference.
Safapour, E., Kermanshachi, S. and Jafari, A., 2020, July. Effective project management
principles and strategies in transportation infrastructure projects. In Creative
Construction e-Conference 2020 (pp. 126-135). Budapest University of Technology
and Economics.
Siziba, S. and Hall, J. H., 2019. The evolution of the application of capital budgeting
techniques in enterprises. Global Finance Journal. p.100504.
Online
12 Essential Project Management Skills. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:<
https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/project-management-skills >.
Project Management. 2021. [Online]. Available Through:<
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/project-management.asp>.