Project Management - Building Management Software for London Campus

This project management assignment focuses on developing building management software for the London Campus. The assignment covers various aspects, including project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closure phases. Task 1 involves creating a network diagram and critical path analysis to determine the project timeline. Task 2 highlights the importance of communication management. Task 3 explores options for accelerating project completion and resource management. Task 4 discusses managing projects with virtual meetings. The project also includes a work breakdown structure (WBS), milestone reports, and a lessons-learned report. The document details the aims, objectives, and activities involved, emphasizing the importance of effective communication, risk management, and stakeholder engagement. The solution includes detailed tables, diagrams, and analyses to provide a comprehensive understanding of the project management process.

Project management

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
Network diagram.........................................................................................................................4
Construction of Network diagram:..................................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
Importance of Communications Management with respect to the project selected....................1
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
a. Different options for accelerating project completion.............................................................3
b. Implementation of project when resources and constrained and not constrained...................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
Discussion on managing project with virtual meetings...............................................................5
Project 2...........................................................................................................................................6
Part 1: initiation...............................................................................................................................6
Task 1: Critical evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing of project.............6
Part 2: Planning................................................................................................................................7
Task 2: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) with all the major tasks..........................................7
Part 3: Execution..............................................................................................................................9
Task 3: Preparation of milestone report.......................................................................................9
Part 4: Controlling.........................................................................................................................10
Task 4: Critical functionalities that can be compromised compared to hire additional staff....10
Part 5: Closing...............................................................................................................................11
Task 5: Lessons-learned report for the entire project................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Changes with the organization or any other type of institution take place frequently and
these are done so that the quality of services that are delivered can be improved (Kadolph and
Marcketti, 2016). Main focus of this project is made is to deliver proper services in relation with
building a management software for London Campus. In order to make such type of activities, it
required to make interpretation of the activities that will be included in this process. Apart from
this, there are many risk that are involved in the process of project development and it is essential
that make sure that all the operations that are covered can be completed in effective manner. In
this context, below given are the aim and objectives that will be covered in this project:
Aim: To conduct building a management software for London Campus.
Objectives:
 To develop and design a building that can be used as laboratories by teachers.
 To form healthy and comfortable environment for students and teachers.
 To determine the monitoring functions like energy management, power consumption, etc.
 To complete the project within determined budget that is $10,000.
TASK 1
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Building Management
System 112 days Thu 2/1/18 Fri 7/6/18
Initiation phase 15 days Tue 1/2/18 Mon 1/22/18
Setting the target goals of
BMS implementation 5 days Tue 1/2/18 Mon 1/8/18
Setting stakeholders
expectations 10 days Tue 1/9/18 Mon 1/22/18 3
Proper and adequate
documentations, contracts
and agreements
8 days Tue 1/9/18 Thu 1/18/18 3
Planning phase 21 days Fri 1/19/18 Fri 2/16/18
Setting out operational
plans and policies 6 days Fri 1/19/18 Fri 1/26/18 5
Identifying resource
requirement i.e. human
source, funds and
equipment’s
9 days Mon 1/29/18 Thu 2/8/18 7
Plan for managing risk 6 days Fri 2/9/18 Fri 2/16/18 8
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Execution phase 21 days Mon 2/19/18 Mon 3/19/18
Collection of funds 5 days Mon 2/19/18 Fri 2/23/18 9,4
Hiring project team i.e.
technical expert, website
developer and others
4 days Mon 2/26/18 Thu 3/1/18 11
Purchase hardware and
software license and others 12 days Fri 3/2/18 Mon 3/19/18 11,12
Testing system
functioning 5 days Fri 3/2/18 Thu 3/8/18 12
Monitoring and controlling
phase 91 days Tue 1/2/18 Tue 5/8/18
Continue monitoring of
the system functioning and
work execution
33 days Tue 3/20/18 Thu 5/3/18 13
Regular reporting 91 days Fri 3/2/18 Fri 7/6/18 12
Conducting meetings 5 days Fri 3/9/18 Thu 3/15/18 14
Analysing the risks 4 days Fri 5/4/18 Wed 5/9/18 16,14
Examining the progress by
comparing the performance
with the targets
5 days Mon 7/9/18 Fri 7/13/18 17
Altering the plan 8 days Mon 7/9/18 Wed 7/18/18 17,16
Closure phase 1 day Tue 1/2/18 Tue 1/2/18
Contract closure 1 day Thu 5/10/18 Thu 5/10/18 19
Post-project appraisal and
review 1 day Mon 7/16/18 Mon 7/16/18 20
Submitting the final report
to the project manager 1 day Thu 7/19/18 Thu 7/19/18 21
Above given are the activities that are included in this project. In this context, all these
activities need to be considered in appropriate manner. When these are done, then to the aim and
objectives attained will be achieved (Batselier and Vanhoucke, 2015).
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Network diagram
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10+8+6+9+6+5+4+91+8+1= 148 days
In accordance with the above network diagram show, it can be stated that all the red
marked numbers are the critical pat that are highly important to be followed. All the other
activities are not that important. Those are the activities that can be completed whenever the
project manager is willing to complete. In total there are 8 of the activities that are required to be
completed within the speculated time period. When this is not completed within the time that is
decided by the project manager, then the project will be a failure (Calvo-Mora, Navarro-García
and Periañez-Cristobal, 2015). The project will have negative impact, when all the people
involved are not able to complete them. Other than time, even cost is included and it is important
that with the budget that is determined all the activities are completed. When this is not done and
the balance that is set exceeds, then it a type of risk.
ID Duration ES EF LS LF Slack
Setting the target goals of BMS implementation 5 0 0 5 5 5
Setting stakeholders expectations 10 5 5 15 15 10
Proper and adequate documentations, contracts and
agreements
8 15 15 23 23 8
Setting out operational plans and policies 6 23 23 29 29 6
Identifying resource requirement i.e. human
source, funds and equipment’s
9 29 29 38 38 7
Plan for managing risk 6 38 38 44 44 6
Collection of funds 5 44 44 49 49 5
Hiring project team i.e. technical expert, website
developer and others
4 38 45 42 49 4
Purchase hardware and software license and others 12 49 49 61 61 12
Testing system functioning 5 61 61 66 66 5
Continue monitoring of the system functioning and
work execution
10 66 71 76 81 10
Regular reporting 15 66 66 81 81 15
Conducting meetings 5 66 66 81 81 15
Analyzing the risks 4 86 87 90 91 4
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Examining the progress by comparing the
performance with the targets
5 86 86 91 91 5
Altering the plan 8 91 91 99 99 8
Contract closure 1 91 91 99 99 8
Post-project appraisal and review 1 99 99 100 100 1
Submitting the final report to the project manager 1 100 100 101 101 1
In accordance with the above given tables there are different type of elements that are covered
and they are as follows:
Early start: The project starts from Thu 2/1/18 and will end up by Fri 7/6/18.
Early finish: The completion date of the project will be Fri 7/6/18 and the start up time
for the project is Thu 2/1/18.
Late start: This contains the latest data for which a task can start without delaying finish
of the project.
Late finish: This is the field that contains the latest date in which the task can be finished
without delaying the finish of the project. From the above table almost all the project were
started on time.
Slack time: This is considered to be the difference between early start and last finish.
Critical path and its analysis: 10+8+6+9+6+5+4+91+8+1= 148 days. This way, it can be
stated that the total time that is taken to complete the activities are 148 days. These are the main
activities that can not be skipped and other remaining can be completed as per the preference of
the project manager.
Forward pass: This can be determined as critical and essential project management
component through which project manager aims to determine the early start and early finish for
all the segments that are uncompleted of work for all network activities.
Backward pass: This relates to the way that determines the early or late start or early or
late finish for an activity.
Construction of Network diagram:
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TASK 2
Importance of Communications Management with respect to the project selected
Communication plays vital role in determining the tasks that has to be performed. In
order to complete the project of building a management software for London Campus, there are
many people who are involved and each of them is required to perform certain set of task. In
conditions when they fail to perform their roles in effective manner, then it affects the project.
This is because the activities that have to be undertaken require support from the side of
employees and the rate of support is low, then it becomes difficult to complete them in
appropriate manner. Further, there people those who are involved in building a management
software for London Campus project can also have knowledge in regard with the changes that
can be made. When interaction or communication among employees is high, then it becomes
favourable enough to determine the areas in which improvement that are required to be made.
Further, there are many stakeholders who are involved in development of the project (Caniëls
and Bakens, 2015). These stakeholders are teachers, administration staff etc. They all contribute
in building a management software for London Campus. As per the type of perception that are
carried out by individuals is different, then considerations should be made so that all the
requirements that are made can be fulfilled.
Apart from this, there are conditions of conflicts that can also raise, when the rate of
interaction is low. However, when communication and interaction that take place is high, then it
is favourable enough to make the project manager of building a management software for
London Campus project is to eliminate the conflict situation. When the conflict situation is high,
then the coordination among workers will be low due to which project manager can fail in
completing the project. Further, there are many issues that are faced from the side of workers
should also be considered. For an employees, the problems that are faced should be focused and
steps can be taken by project manager when they are able to have strong interaction with workers
and problems are identified and appropriate steps are taken to overcome them.
For personal or professional communication, it required to have health relationship with
others. This is possible when the one is able to understand each one and have strong listening
skills. When interaction is one sided, then it becomes difficult to identify the issues that are faced
by others. The type of perception that is carried out will be different and this can only be
identified when listening skills are there. When there are certain issue that are faced in relation
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with the tasks that are to be performed. Through communication it enables to develop strong
relationship with employees. By this way building a management software for London Campus
project can be able to get completed within stipulated period of time.
There are certain set of time and cost that are involved so as to complete the project.
When these are not properly managed, then it becomes helpful for employees to perform their set
of roles. However, this can only be done when project manager of London campus building a
management software for spend time with employees so that the problems that are faced can be
determined and steps are taken (Eskerod, Huemann and Ringhofer, 2015). Apart from this all the
workers need to have proper knowledge regarding the type of roles that has to be played by
them. This can only be clarified when project manager has conveyed effectively regarding the
responsibilities that has to be played by them. When any of the employees fail to perform their
set of roles in effective manner, then can create issues and problem in completing the project. It
is always identified that when a person is asked to perform a task, then total time that will be
consumed will be high when same task is performed by a group. In a project, it is required to
have proper coordination among all the workers so that the tasks or activities can be carried out
within speculated time period.
In order to have a strong communication network among employees, it is important to
make sure that appropriate steps by step process are followed so that they are able to attain the
goals. With this respect, purpose should be conveyed to workers. When this is done, then they
are able to determine the considerations that they should made. Then the project manager should
consider the key players who are involved in the process so that they are able to distribute work.
Further, it required to have discussion regarding the tasks that needs to be done as it makes them
consider the risk that can be raised in the tasks. Moreover, the total time that will be taken should
be specified, when this is done, then it makes the involved persons in the building a management
software for London Campus project to put on their efforts so that they can complete them on
time.
Project management plan:
Recipients (Who) Delivery method (How) Who’s responsible (Owner)
Project team  Team meeting
 Conference calls
Project manager
Project planner  Email Project manager
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Suppliers  Team meetings
 Conference calls
Project manager
Employees  Email
 Face to face
Project manager
TASK 3
a. Different options for accelerating project completion
There is various type of options that are available with the help of which speed for
completing the project can be raised. In this context, below given are some of the options that
can be followed by project manager:
Employees training: When comparison is made among people who are skilled and other
who are unskilled, the once who are skilled will perform the task with quality and before time.
With this respect, project manager need to consider the skills that each of the employees possess
and division of roles should be done so that they are able determine the steps that has to be taken
and work is complete before time and that also maintaining high quality (Eskerod, Huemann and
Savage, 2015).
Additional resources: To carry out a project, it is required to have resources and when it
is available in access, then it enables to focus on all the aspects in effective manner. When the
conditions in which the rate of availability for resources are low, then becomes difficult to
complete the task before time.
Outsourcing project: This is considered to be common method that is applied for
shortening project time. There are many tasks that are provided with other firms that will
perform the given task. When this is done, the total time consumed will get reduced.
Scheduling overtime: One of the effective way to add more labour is not to add people
but it is through scheduling overtime. For example, when a team of people for 50 hours isted of
40 hours, then the rate of productivity that were done by them will raise up to 20%. On the other
hand, when number of employees is added, then it would not be effective enough as the time
taken by them will be high for understanding the roles that has to be performed by them.
However, when the total working hours are carried out is raised, then it becomes favourable
enough to complete the project activities before the scheduled time period.
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