Project Management Assignment

The provided assignment is focused on various aspects of project management, including the four stages of a project life cycle (initiation, planning, execution, and closure), scope management as an essential part of requirements elicitation, risk management through critical path analysis, and the importance of monitoring project quality. The assignment also delves into using network diagrams to set deadlines, manage cash flow, and assemble the right team. It incorporates several references from prominent authors in the field of project management.

Word Count for Task 1 : 810 (Excluding Q5, Introduction and References)
Introduction
Today project management has emerged as a leading solution in business operations. Large and
small organization realize that a structured approach to controlling and planning projects is the
key approach to success. Boddy and Buchanan (1992) defined a project as: a unique venture with
a beginning and an end, conducted by people to meet established goals, schedule and quality
while Turner (1993) described a project as an endeavour in which human (or machine), material
and financial resources are organized in a novel way, to undertake a unique scope of work, of
given specification, within constraints of cost and time, so as to deliver beneficial change defined
by quantitative and qualitative objectives. Project management includes all of the initiating,
planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing activities needed to successfully create
the desired project deliverable. Pinto (2004) chronicles the evolution from the simple iron
triangle of cost, schedule, and quality known as Triple Constraint through benefits to the
organization and benefits to stakeholders.
1.Four stages of Project Life Cycle, and importance of the final stage
Project life cycle can be used to gain understanding and control, for operational planning and for
predicting (Kotler and Keller 2012). The project life cycle phases are as follow:
The Initiation phase indicate the beginning of the project. In this phase, the idea for the project is
explored and elaborated. The goal of this phase is to examine the feasibility of the project.
Development Phase : The requirements that are associated with a project result are specified as
clearly as possible. This involves identifying the expectations that all of the involved parties have
with regard to the project result.
Implementation Phase : includes everything that will be needed to implement the project as
planned and arranged.
Commissioning phase: In this phase, it confirms the project has been completed to the design,
then the project is closed.
The closing phase is a critical step in the project management life cycle. It begins when the
project’s customers formally accept the project deliverable and ends when documentation is
complete and resources are reassigned.It signals the official end of the project and provides a
period for reflection, wrap-up, and organization of materials.

While all projects may begin with the initiation stage, the emergence of projects along their life
cycle may not exactly and perfectly map on to the planning and execution stage as was initially
intended. The project life cycle process may therefore vary along the deliberate and emergent
continuum (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985).
2.‘Scope Management’
The scope can be divided into product scope and project scope. According to Alexander et al
(2009), the product scope is related to everything that is within the boundaries of the product, as
features, restrictions and details that allow to define the results or product desired in a project. On
the other hand, the project scope is related to description of all necessary work to achieve what
was defined on the product scope, attending all features and functions previously specified
(PMBOK, 2013). The scope management is related to other areas of project management, as
cost, time and risk management. Thus, when the scope is not well defined, it causes
inconsistencies and many failures may happen throughout the project (Bjamason et al, 2012;
Kumari et al 2014)
3.Purpose of risk management
Douglas (2009) defines risk management as identifying and assessing the risks to the project and
managing those risks to minimize the impact on the project to control the probability of
unfortunate events or to maximize the opportunities. There are no risk-free projects because the
greater the uncertainty, the greater the risk (Crane, Gantz, Isaacs, Jose, 2013).Risk management
is not about eliminating risk but about identifying, assessing, and managing risk.The purpose of
risk management is to identify potential problems before they occur so that risk-handling
activities may be planned and invoked as needed across the life of the product or project to
mitigate adverse impacts on achieving objectives. Risk management should address issues that
could endanger achievement of critical objectives. A continuous risk management approach is
applied to effectively anticipate and mitigate the risks that have critical impact on the project.

The project risk management can be divided into five parts:Risk Identification, Risk Analysis,
Monitoring (Tracking and Controlling)Phase, Defining risk management strategy which includes
the implementation of risk mitigation, risk avoidance, risk transfer and risk acceptance.
4. NPV and it’s benefits
NPV is the net present value which is the sum of all the future cash flows to determine the
present value. The NPV is described as the difference between the present value of the cash
inflows and the present value of the cash outflows (Awomewe & Ogundele 2008).It is calculated
as:
NPV = Cash inflows – Cash outflows or expenditure of Investment
With this method, all cash flows are discounted to present values using the required rate of return
(Van Horne, 1992).The main advantage of NPV method is that takes into account the time value
of an investment opportunity by discounting the cash flows (Awomewe & Ogundele 2008).
5.Outline and explain the main aspects of monitoring project quality. (6marks)
6. Question 6
i.Project network diagrams assist teams in setting deadlines and simplifying the process of
ordering material resources and equipment. They also help to manage cash flow and assembling
the right team.
ii.The critical path is the longest-duration path through the network. The critical path determines
the total calendar time required for the project. It significantly provides a graphical view of the
project and estimate the time required to complete the project. It also shows which activities are
critical to maintaining the schedule and which are not . Because of its impact on the entire
project, critical path analysis is an important aspect of project planning.

iii. AON project network (with calculations of forward pass, backward pass and slack).
iv.The critical path of this project is A,C,F,H,J
v. Gantt chart

References :
Alexander, I., Beus-Dukic, L., (2009). Discovering requirements: how to specify products and
services. John Wiley & Sons. West Sussex, 1st edition.
Bjamason, E., Wnuk, K., Regnell, B., (2012). Are you bitting off more than you can chew? A
case study on causes ans effects of overscoping in large-scale software engineering. Information
and Software Technology, vol. 54, issue 10, pages 1107-1124.
Boddy, D, and D.A, Buchanan (1992) Take the Lead, Harlow: Prentice Hall ,Pearson.
Crane, L., Grantz, G., Isaacs, S., Jose, D., & Sharp, R. (2013). Introduction to Risk
Management (ed. Second). Extension Risk Management Education and Risk Management
Agency. Retrieved from http://extensionrme.org/pubs/introductiontoriskmanagement.pdf
Douglas, Hubbard (2009). The failure of risk management: Why it`s broken and how to fix it.
John Wiley and Sons, p. 46
Heldman, K. (2011). Project Management JumpStart.John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H. (2006), Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence, New
York.
Kotler, Philip and Kevin L.K, (2013). Framework for Marketing Management:Global Edition,
Pearson Education.
Kumari, N., Pillai, A. S., 2014. A study on project scope as a requirements elicitation issue.
Computing for Sustainable Global Development , International Conference on IEEE, pages 510-
514.
Mintzberg, H. & Waters, J. A. (1986), ‘Of strategies, deliberate and emergent’, Strategic
Management Journal, 6 (3), 257 – 272.
Project Management Institute (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge.
5th edition.
Pinto, J.K. & Slevin D.P, (1988) , ‘Critical success factors across the project life cycle’, Project
Management Journal, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 67-75.
Pinto, J. K. (2004). “The Elements of Project Success.” Chapter in Field Guide to Project
Management. Ed. D. I. Cleland. Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 14-27.
Turner, RJ (1993) Handbook of Project-Based Management, 3rd edition, London: McGraw-Hill.
Van Horne. J. C. (1992), Financial management and policy. (9th Edition). Prentice Hall
International Editions. U.S.A.