Analyzing the Role of Project Managers in Ensuring Success

The assignment explores the pivotal role of project managers in benefits realization management within project constraints. It examines how strategic planning and organizational processes contribute to achieving desired outcomes. The discussion includes insights from Mossalam & Arafa (2016), emphasizing the importance of aligning project goals with long-term organizational objectives. By understanding these dynamics, project managers can enhance their effectiveness in driving project success and delivering value.

Running head: PROJECT PLANNING
Project Planning
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

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Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................5
2. Required Activities...................................................................................................................6
3. Skills and competencies of the project manager......................................................................7
4. Project Management Process....................................................................................................9
4.1 Strategic planning................................................................................................................16
4.2 Organizational planning.......................................................................................................16
4.3 Other processes....................................................................................................................16
5. Concerns in project management...........................................................................................17
6. Budget Timeline.....................................................................................................................18
7. Project Life Cycle Stages.......................................................................................................19
8. Leadership..............................................................................................................................20

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9. Control Problems....................................................................................................................21
10. Conclusion..........................................................................................................................22
Reference.......................................................................................................................................23
Appendices....................................................................................................................................28

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Task 1
1. The type of project that is identified in task 2 is market driven project as it is producing a new product in response to the
market need (Bates et al. 2015). The reason behind selecting this project is that the company JKB Bloggins Ltd is expanding
its business with the use of new technology in UK. All the operational activities of the company deal with the supply in global
car manufacturing plants. This was suitable because the manufacturing projects are intended to deliver equipments or
machineries associated with vehicles or automobiles. The finished output might be built on the basis of the customer demand
and the project can get the internal funding from the company itself for the designing of a new product and increase in sale.
2. Scope management is the necessary work required for the delivery of the project (Burke 2013). As per task 2, project scope
management will involve the methods for increasing competitiveness in the market by ensuring new machinery and
technology. The tools that can be used for collecting requirements are facilitated workshops of group creativity techniques,
brainstorming and group decision making techniques and so on. Specifically the group decision making will be useful in this
aspect.
3. If a Gantt chart is used for critical path analysis then there is a chance that it could either make or break a project. Gantt charts
are able to schedule the activities and keep a record of the progress of the project as per the deadline. It can be considered as an
effective tool which reflects the starting and ending dates of the individual activities in the form of a horizontal bar graph
(Chipulu et al. 2013). But the most important thing is to make a list of all the activities and the time required for completing
those in the course of the project.

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4. There are certain factors which can determine that the project in task 2 was successful or not. The most important factor is
schedule which looks into the requirement of deadline or if the project is related to some other topic (Wearne 2014). The
schedule takes care of the fact that the project was completed on time or not. The scope factor considers what is required to get
the work done in the timeframe. It can involve a list of ideas but act as the captain in driving the project forward. Budget is the
most important factor for any kind of projects and it is important to take a not if the project had stuck to the budget at the end
or not (Cicmil et al. 2017). Team satisfaction often gets unnoticed in project management but it is extremely necessary.
Customer satisfaction and the quality of work are the other key factors which need to be on the positive side for making the
project successful.
5. For managing changes to control the project in task 2 the first thing that needs to be done is defining a change request and
getting information about the change. The change needs to be evaluated according to the planning process of the quantity of
work. Then it is appropriate to prepare a recommendation about the effectiveness of going forward with the change. This lets
the project sponsor take a decision about the incorporation of the specific change (Davis 2014).
6. For recognizing the success of the project in task 2 the project manager will use the technique of performance measurement
along with the method of project evaluation. These are the two important aspects of project schedule control which let the team
associated with the project to identify if a schedule is required for rectifying action (Bach 2014). Performance measurement
techniques include the process of performance reviews, trend analysis, earned value analysis and information distribution tools
and techniques. Performance reviews are the meetings conducted for tracking the project progress. Trend analysis helps in the

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scrutinizing of the project outcomes for long term projects (Fleming and Koppelman 2016). Earned value analysis takes into
consideration the scope, cost and schedule and the tools and techniques make the important information available to the project
stakeholders in a timely manner. Project evaluation process will recognize if the project was performed as per the plan and thus
help the project manager to maintain a brief and controlled schedule for the project. Thus it can be said that performance
improves with measurement which increases with the process of giving feedback (Marion, Richardson and Earnhardt 2014).
Task 2
1. Introduction
This report is based on the analysis of JKB Bloggins Ltd which is going to open a fully functional factory plant with new
technology machine and well-trained staffs. The scope of the project is to purchase and build a new manufacturing site in the north-
east coast of UK. There will be shifting and using new technology machinery in the UK site for the new production. This is a company
in the automotive industry which excels in the designing and manufacturing of industrial textiles. The companies where they supply
their products are the important suppliers to the different international car manufacturing plants. In 1980, this particular company has
started in the UK and has been successful since then. At present, the company is looking forward to increase their competition in the
market of global competitiveness (Flyvbjerg 2014). This particular project has a budget of 12 million pounds including the buying and
manufacturing of the site which will be directly located at the north- east coast of England because of the flexibility in all weather

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condition. Further, the report will look into the steps that will be taken by the newly appointed project manager for the supervision of
this particular project. The project objective is to successfully complete the tasks required for the company within the given period of
time.
2. Required Activities
To cope up with the global competition in the market, the company JKB Bloggins Ltd has decided to expand with the introduction
of new technology and machinery in the marketing site of UK (van den Ende and van Marrewijk 2014). The activities that need to be
introduced in the project are shifting of the new technologies and machinery from Asia which will need the training of the staff
members and the procurement of new machines in Asia. The members of the project team will also be appointed from the existing
staff of JKB Bloggins Ltd and some members will be recruited from outside. The new members must get training for at least a year in
Asia for gaining knowledge as well as experience so that they can provide strong support in the implementation of new technology
(Ghaffari, Sheikhahmadi and Safakish 2014). All these activities will be carried out under the supervision of a project manager within
a specific time in the allocated budget.
List of activities Done Partially
done
Not done Tools required Time limit

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Ongoing
reviews
Personal or
team meetings
2 months
Periodic
inspections
Data gathering 4 months
Milestone
evaluation
Availability of
important
information
6 months
Final project
audit
Analysis 1 year
Fig: Performance evaluation timeline
Source: As created by the author
3. Skills and competencies of the project manager
It is not enough for the project to be nicely oriented and sufficiently financed as it also requires the guidance of an experienced and
skilled manager for the effective success. In the automotive industry it is impossible to think of a manufacturing project without the

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presence of a project manager. But there is no specific definition of the project managers and his roles and responsibilities are not
listed definitely (Sears et al. 2015). He is accountable for administration of the project as well as managing the multi- million budgets.
For this particular project the newly appointed project manager will possess the skills of effective leadership and negotiation.
He needs to lead his team without being dominating and should use his negotiation skills for resolving conflicts these two qualities are
considered to be important assets for a manager along with his skill of scheduling which will be beneficial in delivering projects in a
better way (Golini, Kalchschmidt and Landoni 2015). Cutting the cost is not a quality that is possessed by everyone but a skilled
manager cannot do without it. As a project manager, he should deliver the projects by utilizing the finance in a witty manner even in
the time of crisis. With time and experience, the manager will be able to handle projects in a better way which calls for a minimum
risk management. His success is dependent on the fact that how well he can cope up with the risk. A project manager also needs to
manage the suppliers such as the international car manufacturing plants for this relevant case. Critical thinking and communication are
the two essential soft skills required for managing the suppliers and other external publics. Other skills of a project manager include
recovering a project, coaching, task management, quality management, meetings management writing of business case and a good
sense of humor (Haines 2016).
Along with the skills mentioned above the project manager has to come across certain competencies such as execution in the
form of scope development and management and the employment of strong organizational skills. Decision making is another major
competency while conducting scenario analysis. The project manager also finds proficiency in team management and as business

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acumen. Technical competence, critical thinking and leadership are the common abilities that are mandatory qualities of a project
manager (Harris 2015).
4. Project Management Process
The project management identifies the three basic processes which can serve to organize the upcoming activities of the company
JKB Bloggins Ltd. These three fundamental processes include planning, executing and controlling (Hazır 2015). The three processes
take place at all the levels of the organization in various forms and under various names. The technical requirement is fulfilled as there
are no issues related to performance of the staff, reliability and availability of resources required for the project. The designing,
infrastructure and transportation have been set as per the project details.
In the course of this project four threats have been identified which might impact the delivery of this project. The four risks
involved in this project are-
a) Ineffectiveness of training
b) Damage of the resources
c) Exceeding of budget
d) Problem in shifting of machinery

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Fig: Risk analysis matrix
Source: As created by the author

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Fig: Milestone report
Source: As created by the author