Project Management Report: Project Life Cycle and Case Study Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of project management, beginning with an introduction to the core concepts and key characteristics of projects. It then delves into the various stages of project management, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure, highlighting the purpose of each stage and its importance in achieving project goals. The report explores the significance of Project Initiation Documents (PIDs) and the knowledge areas essential for effective project management, such as integration, scope, and stakeholder management. It also outlines the attributes of a successful project manager and the importance of stakeholder engagement. The report then presents a case study of London Skills Concern, a charitable organization, and applies the project life cycle to their initiative of integrating new technologies to enhance their business operations, detailing each stage from initiation to execution. The report emphasizes the importance of planning, execution, and stakeholder communication throughout the project life cycle.

Managing Project

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
Key characteristics of project..................................................................................................................3
Stages in Project Management.................................................................................................................4
Purpose of Project Initiation Document...................................................................................................4
Knowledge areas in project management................................................................................................5
Attributes of project manager..................................................................................................................5
Stakeholders and their importance in project management......................................................................6
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................10
REFERNCES............................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
A project refers to a combination of activities organized or structured in such a manner
that the required objective can be achieved in an effective efficient manner. Along with this, it
ranges from a few days to months or even years depending on the amount of work divided
(Cleden, D 2017). In order to complete or achieve specific task in a given time frame or budget,
it should be properly managed which leads a company to accomplish their objective without any
hindrances. However, project management plays a crucial role on every business operation and
function in order to attain high productivity and profitability. Furthermore, it is the application of
knowledge, skills using formal set of tools, techniques to a broad range of project activities to
meet the requirements the organization. In this report, it includes the importance and significance
of managing project as well as develops a project life cycle on a given case study is also
mentioned here.
TASK 1
Key characteristics of project.
Every project is different but all of them contains some common feature like objective,
SMART goals, deliverables etc. which helps them to accomplish their task in an innovative or
creative way. Furthermore, it is considered as a plan of action which provide proper direction or
guidance to business for obtaining high productivity and proficiency. Some of its prime feature
are as follows:
Temporary: On of the key feature is that project has a finite start and finite end point.
However, the beginning time is when project is initiated and concept id developed. The end is
reached when all the objective have been met.
Unique deliverables: Any project aims to provide productive outcome which should be
inimitable in nature i.e. it requires of doing something different, which was not done previously.
However, it is a one – time, once-off activity that never to be repeated exactly the same again.
Progressive expansion: With the development of project, an organization seeks for
continuous investigation and improvement which allows them to produce accurate and
comprehensive plans as well as enable team to bring out effective solution to progress and
explore project.

Stages in Project Management
It is discipline of planning, organizing and established principles, policies, and
procedures of company which act as a guide to specific project from the stage of conception
through completion. There are various stages under project which are as follows:
Project Initiation: It is the foremost part of project management where its value and
feasibility gets measured with the help of tools i.e. business case documents, feasibility study in
order to bring out effective results (Joslin and Müller, 2015).
Project Planning: Under this stage, a more in depth outline or plan is crested which helps
company to keep their work on time and on budget for obtaining maximization of profit with
optimum utilization of resources.
Project Execution: In this phase, project plans are covert into tangible deliverables as the
team members allocates available resources and builds deliverables to satisfy customer.
Project monitoring and control: In this, project manager evaluate or analyze the
performance of team and measures it by using a tool i.e. key performance indicators (KPI) in
order to communicate project progress and based on that makes possible modification for
achieving better outcome.
Project Closure: It is the vital stage of project management in which team or company
deliver the work to customer, communicating completion to stakeholders and releasing resources
to other tasks (Patanakul, 2015).
Purpose of Project Initiation Document
It is the most important component of project management as it is a decision document
which gathers the information which is obtained by starting of a project and initiatives from a
process in a Price 2 controlled environment. Furthermore, PID is fully based on Price 2 concept
which provide proper direction to business in achieving goal. Some of the element which PID
contains are as follows:
Composition: It encompasses of collected information which involves project goal, size,
organizational structure, quality plan etc. which leads an organization to accomplish their pre-
determined goals.

Business Case: It is an important component in project initiation document. However, it
is a written or verbal value proposition which captures the reasoning for originating a project or
task. One of the main idea behind this that, whenever resources such as money, effort, man are
consumed, they should be in support of specific business needs as well as enable project manager
to make best strategic decision for achieving the goal (Turkulainen and et. al., 2015).
Stakeholders: They are those group of people who invest in business project and will be
affected by project at any point along the way, and their input directly impact outcome. Some of
key stakeholders of project are senior management, team members, customers etc. Therefore, it’s
a responsibility of an organization to build a better relationship with them in order to achieve
high level of satisfaction which add value to company’s brand image.
Knowledge areas in project management
For creating a productive outcome for particular task or project, there are some tools,
skills or disciplines which provide guidance to company in order to add value to firm’s
reputation as well as to build a good relationship with stakeholders. The knowledge areas in
project management are as follows:
Project Integration System: It act as an umbrella for other knowledge areas as it knits
together all individuals processes and tasks into one project with define goals and deliverables.
The main aim of this integration management is to the execution and delivery of project work
end to end successfully.
Project Scope Management: This element states the main idea behind developing project
as it collect required resources, defines the scope and create Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
However, WBS is a graphic presentation of project work which render clarity in an information
and reduce conflicts or ambiguity among personnel and stakeholders.
Attributes of project manager
They are one of the key aspect for every project who has the overall responsibility for
successful initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of project
within prescribed time limit in an impressive and productive manner. Some of the qualities
which is required for project manager are as follows:

Effective communication skills: It is considered as primal role as it enable manager to
provide transparent or clear information to its team members and helps them to build a better
relationship with them. By this, there will be less possibility of arising conflicts or disputes and
improves the working culture of company (Dutta and Bose, 2015).
Strong leadership: This allows a leader to motivate or encourage their workforce in order
to put their full contribution towards the accomplishment of organizational goals or objective in
an active and proficient manner.
Good decision maker: A project manager should be proactive rather than being reactive
which means they must ne unbiased in nature while making decision so that it generates healthy
working atmosphere and enhance organization capability in attaining productivity.
Stakeholders and their importance in project management
They are those individuals, group or an organization who is influenced by the outcome of
project as stakeholders have an interest in success of project, and can be within or outside
company that is sponsoring assignment. Moreover, stakeholder analysis is an important tool or
technique for investor identification and analyzing their needs. It is mainly used to examine all
key which effect shareholders high i.e. primary and secondary and based on that make corrective
course of action for providing high level satisfaction. One of the main purpose of this analysis is
to develop a strategic view of human and institutional landscape as well as generate a better
relationship among various stakeholders and provide effective solution to their issues which they
face, which in result enlarge firm’s performance among industry (Too and Weaver, 2014).
TASK 2
Introduction to company
London Skills Concern is a very new and innovated organization. Along with this, it is
registered as charitable company and well as it also act as trading arm for public and private
companies. The main aim of this firm is to render support and encouragement to youths of a
nation to pursue their education without any hindrances in order to build an impressive and
successful career. Moreover, it act as a bridge between local authorities and government as it

provide all significant and relevant information regarding the availability of NEET young
people and based on that London Skills Concern make corrective course of action. Apart from
this, being a reputed and social responsible company they decides to adapt an innovative or
creative technology in their business operation and function so that they can carry on their
activities more effectively and can be easily available to clients or customer which add value to
its stakeholders and also enhance company’s brand image (Le Roy and Fernandez, 2015).
In order to accomplish their organizational goal in an effective and efficient manner, they
develops a project life cycle which provide them proper and accurate guidance to move forward
with this ideas. The project life cycle for London Skills Concern are as follows:
Project Initiation: In this phase of the project, business foremost step is to identify or
determine their need, scope, problem, opportunity and brainstorms ways which team members
can easily carry out firm’s vision within prescribed time limit. In regard of London Skills
Concern, their main idea or objective behind their project is to strengthen the business function
by acquiring latest or updated technologies in order to attain high level of productivity as well as
improve the customer satisfaction in a better way. However, its project managers use two
evaluation tools to know or decide regarding pursuing with same ideas within their business
premises. Those elements are business case documents and feasibility study. Hence with the help
of this documents, London skills project managers will be able to ascertain estimated cost i.e. £
8m and it takes the timeline of 18 months to complete their task and to introduce into
marketplace for clients or customer. Along with this, they make use of project initiation
document in terms of PRINCE 2However, after setting aim or objective team starts their work in
order to accomplish their goal in an appropriate manner (van den Ende and van Marrewijk
2014).
Project Planning: Once the project is approved, the next phase arise which is states as
planning in which each task get break down into smaller chore and according to theta they allot
team and prepare a schedule for completion of an assignments. During tis stage, London Skills
Concern company creates smaller goals within the larger project and make sure that each is
achievable within timeframe because smaller goals contains high level of potential for success.
Moreover, one of their key aim is to move from traditional method of education to hybrid system
which improves the overall performance of company. Thus, supporting new online learning

experience, worldwide collaboration and rich online media consumption with virtual classroom
which empower students or youths to learn on demand from any location, eliminating the
boundaries that limit a student’s ability to learn or acquire knowledge. However, with this project
plan it enable London skills concern team a proper direction for producing quality outputs,
handling risk, creating acceptance, communicating benefits to stakeholders and managing
suppliers (vom Brocke and Lippe, 2015). Apart from this, it also prepares team members for
obstacles which they might encounter over the course of project, and helps them understand the
cost, scope and timeframe of project.
Project Execution: In this stage, it turns plans into actions in an impressive and
productive manner. Along with this, it is also responsible for enduring all parts or business
function machine continuously run smoothly. It is important and fundamental to London Skills
Concern maintain control and communicate how and when necessary during this whole phase.
Apart from this, each individual perform their task and progress information will be exchanged
through regular team meetings, so called progress status meeting. However, London skills
concern’s project managers uses this information to maintain control over task direction by
company’s progress reports with the plan , to measure performance of activities and corrective
action if necessary. The main strategy of this us to bring project back to its original course, that
of the plan drawn up in the previous phase. If this is not possible, the changes from its unique
plan must be recorded and modified idea should be formalized. Furthermore, execution is all
about building deliverables which satisfy customer demand. As team leaders of London skills
Concern’s team leaders allocate resources and keeping members focused on their assigned work.
Apart from this, communication with team members, clients and upper management in order to
provide updates to stakeholders at all levels of organization. Along with this, during execution
stage monitoring quality of work as it ensures that the each manpower are meeting their time and
effectiveness objective for tasks as well as enable them to ascertain budget by supervising
spending and keeping the project o track in terms of assets and resource (Ramazani and Jergeas,
2015).
Project monitoring and controlling: This activity sometime combines with execution
because they often occur at the same time as team execute their project plan and they constantly
supervises their progress. During this information system project of London Skills Concern, its

project managers track or monitors the entire business operation or function in order to
strengthen the working atmosphere of firm which enlarges the their productivity and profitability
ratio. However, to deliver what has promised group of personnel analyses tasks in order to
protect scope creep as well as calculating key performance indicators and track variations from
allotted cost and time. These KPI s determines the degree of variation from the actual project
goal. Some example of specific KPIs involves project schedule, effort and cost tracking and is
performance. However, calculating these KPI’s keeps their projects on track to prevent from any
kind project failures. Hence, this constant vigilance helps London Skills Concern to keep their
project moving ahead smoothly and allows them to accomplish their pre-determined goals within
prescribed time limit in an innovative and creative style. Furthermore, as a project manager they
develops a timeline for the particular project as a whole. During control phase, team leader
examine its team’s milestones and accomplishment to determine if that timeline is accurate or
relevant in order to improve the overall performance of firm among competitive industry. On the
other hand, if the predictions turn out to be wrong, closely ascertaining progress leaves with time
to course correct. Furthermore, today’s work environment is complicated but managing
resources does not have to be distributed project teams, new or innovative technologies and a
globalized, always on workforce make managing teams workload more complex than ever
before. All this contributes render more stress, higher turnover, project inefficiencies and
generate more costs for a London Skills Concern. Thus, eBook resource management plays a
vital role in London skill concern business activities as they desires to move from traditional
method to hybrid system (Browning, 2014).
Project closure: Once the team members completes their work or task on a project, it
leads them to enter into a final stage i.e. closing of an assignments and efforts. Hence, in this
phase project managers of London Skills Concern provides final deliverables, release job
resources and determine the success of the task. However, just because the major work is over,
that does not mean that the manager’s job is done there are still important things to do, including
evaluating what did and did not work with project. Under this, London Skills Concern workforce
makes sure that all aspect of related to exciting assignment i.e. adapting hybrid system into their
business activities are completed with no loose ends remaining and rendering reports to key
stakeholders. Along with this, they conducts post implementation review as it generate a path to
its leaders to ascertain final analysis of work, taking into account lessons learned for similar

project in the future. Furthermore, this vital step in project life cycle allows the team to evaluate
or documents the project and move on next one as well as enable them to allow previous work
mistakes and success to build stronger processes and more energetic teams. Moreover, valuable
members are awarded and recognized, contractors are terminated and project success and failures
are identified. Also, managers develops a final task budget and report to close out project. While
this is the close of one project, all lessons and data are important to take into future work or task
as during reviewing actual hours on specific labor activities verses the estimates, the team
members can adjust their valuation on future work. Hence, team of London Skill Concern
discovers that Information System work consumes 200 employees and previous bids involves
approx. of 150 hours which is critical information that can be used to improve future business
opportunities that add value to customers or clients as well as enlarge company’s brand image
among competitive marketplace (Mir and Pinnington, 2014).
Although project management sometimes seems irresistible at times, breaking it down
into these five distinct cycles which help London Skills Concern’s team members to manage or
handle even the complex projects and allows them to optimum utilization of available resources
in order to obtain profit maximization within an industry. Along with this, adapting latest or
novel technologies and ideas helps professional service team to be more proficient and profitable
which makes the flow of communication easier and improves working culture of a company in a
better way.
CONCLUSION
From the above stated report, it has been summarized that managing project plays a
crucial role in every organization function as it enable each individuals to put their full
contribution towards the attainment of high level of productivity and profitability. There are
several tools or techniques in project managements which makes each task more efficient and
effective as well as enable firm to build a better relationship within or outside of an organization
which enlarge company’s reputation and brand image among competitive marketplace.
Moreover, project life cycle is also an essential component which helps firm to carry out their
work very systematically or structurally in order to achieve their pre-determined goals in an
impressive and productive way.

REFERNCES
Books and Journals
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vom Brocke, J. and Lippe, S., 2015. Managing collaborative research projects: A synthesis of
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van den Ende, L. and van Marrewijk, A., 2014. The ritualization of transitions in the project life
cycle: A study of transition rituals in construction projects. International Journal of Project
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Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and
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