Project Management: QAHE Student Application Project Report

This project management assignment details the development of a student application for QAHE University. It begins with a project initiation document (PID) or project charter, outlining the budget, timescale, objectives, and approach. A detailed work breakdown structure (WBS) is provided, breaking down tasks over a five-month period. The assignment includes a Gantt chart and critical path method analysis to optimize the project timeline. It then explores a risk register, identifying potential risks such as budget changes, communication problems, and resource limitations, along with mitigation strategies and contingency plans. The importance of a risk register in project success is emphasized. The assignment also covers the significance of structured communication, and provides a critical analysis of different project management methodologies. The project uses a stakeholder analysis to identify key stakeholders, their interests, and influence on the project's success. The project provides comprehensive project management strategies that are necessary for successful project completion.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
PROJECT 1......................................................................................................................................3
Project Charter or Project Initiation Document...........................................................................3
Work Breakdown Structure.........................................................................................................6
Gantt Chart...................................................................................................................................7
Critical Path Method....................................................................................................................8
PROJECT 2......................................................................................................................................9
Risk register.................................................................................................................................9
Cruciality of risk register in success of project..........................................................................13
PROJECT 3....................................................................................................................................14
Justification of the importance of structured communication....................................................14
Critical Analysis of different project management methodologies...........................................15
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

PROJECT 1
Project Charter or Project Initiation Document
The project initiation document i.e. PID or the project charter is a document that
encompasses the different activities that need to be accomplished in order to achieve the intended
objectives behind the project (Lensges, Kloppenborg and Forte, 2018). There are certain key
elements of PID statement and each can be individually developed for the QAHE Student
Application Development:
Budget: Preparation of a budget involves ascertaining the costs that might be incurred in the
completion of the activities that are to be undertaken. It ensures that there is no over or under
spending that the estimated costs (Mousaei and Javdani, 2018). In order to develop the current
budget for the project of developing a QAHE Recreation App, following budget can be
developed:
Particulars Amount (Total)
App developer £10000
Wages £1000
Marketing and Promotion £2000
Equipment and staff £5000
Maintenance £1500
Stationary £500
Total £200000
The budget above helps in estimating an approximate cost of £200k in the development of a
student application for the QAHE University.
Timescale: The sponsors want he application to be developed by the next academic year and
therefore the time that can be utilized is the time period of five months from February to June
2020.
Objectives: The current project is developed with the aim of developing a student application for
the QAHE University ( Eskerod and Jepsen, 2016). This is done to increase the awareness and
the objectives can be categorized as follows:

 The management of QAHE wants to develop a common and integrated platform where
students can indulge in activities apart from their classes and education.
 The involvement of the students in the external activities and other events, clubs and
societies outside or inside of the campus.
 The increase in the number of student recognition awards in the extra- curricular
activities and further increased representation of the QAHE University.
 To complete the entire project within the time frame of five months before launching the
student interaction application next year. To portray an enhanced image of all round development so that further students can be
attracted to the university and enrolments can be increased.
Approach: In order to develop a perfect and integrated platform for the students, it is necessary
to adopt and implement and error free approach so that objectives can be integrated with the
approach:
 Development of a proper schedule where students can work on the project without
compromising with studies because students will play a major role in ascertaining the
contents or the aspects covered in the development of student application.
 The core team for the current project will involve 5 teachers, all the Hod's of the
University, the Dean, student team of 30 students. The dean and the Hod's will be
informed regularly about the progress and their approval at each stage will be taken for
the project.
 Two external specialists in the app developing field. The specialists will ensure error free
development of the mobile application by using the technical knowledge that they posses
in relation to the app development. The volunteers if any will be selected only if they are found to adequately skilled and
collectively, education of the students will not be compromised with.
Key Staff: The key staff will be the core team of students, teacher, HOD and Dean involved in
the development of QAHE student Application. The specialists hired and the sponsor of the
event i.e. the director of O2 will also form a part of the key staff for the project. The sponsors
will be regularly informed of the project's progress.

Stakeholder Analysis: This stage involves the identification of the interested parties in the
project and the impact of their decision in the project (Kerzner, 2018).
The stakeholder matrix helps in determining the power and interest aspect of different
stakeholders associated with project. The stakeholders for the current project of QAHE can be
categorized as follows:
Stakeholders Power, Interest and Significance
Students Students have the power to make application either
successful or a failure and it is necessary to develop
application in accordance with the interests of students
because of the key role that they play. The increased
participation in external activities as well will help in
enhancing the overall development of the student at
QAHE. They can influence the success of the project by
either accepting the student application platform or not.
Sponsors Sponsors will provide funding on which entire project
I
llustration 1: Stakeholder matrix
Source: Eskerod and Jepsen, 2016

depends, and they are interested in every activity. Also, the
project will be viable only after their approval. The
investor of the project is the crucial party where they must
be informed of the progress regularly to keep them
engaged. The directors' approval must be taken at every
stage so that funds can be acclaimed regularly.
Project
Manager
Project Leader has the power to control all the activities of
the project and its success influences the success of the
manager. The project manager is the leader and therefore
the success and activities being undertaken for the project
must be evaluated all the times. They must have complete
knowledge of each activity being undertaken and take into
account its positive and negative aspect accordingly.
Team Members Activities undertaken by core team must be in accordance
with the objectives because these can influence the
completion and success of entire project. The core team
must be aware of the responsibilities clearly where each
must acknowledge their tasks and skills required properly.
The application can be built successfully only after if they
understand what work is to be done on it.
Work Breakdown Structure
A work breakdown structure details different activity that are to be performed in the
project being undertaken in a chronological order (Sanghera, 2019). A work breakdown structure
for this project of building a student application can be detailed as follows where all the activities
will be completed in the time frame of five months:
S. Nos. Task Name Duration Start Finish Predec
essors
1 App Initiation 40 days Thu 2/13/20 Wed 4/8/20
2 Develop a team 15 days Thu 2/13/20 Wed 3/4/20

3 Assign roles and
responsibilities 10 days Thu 2/13/20 Wed 2/26/20
4 Conduct a feasibility
study 25 days Thu 3/5/20 Wed 4/8/20 2
5 Stakeholder/ sponsors
identification 10 days Thu 2/27/20 Wed 3/11/20 3
6 App Development
Planning 65 days Thu 2/13/20 Wed 5/13/20
7 Budget formulation 5 days Thu 4/9/20 Wed 4/15/20 4
8 Developing Timeline 5 days Thu 4/9/20 Wed 4/15/20 4
9 Select external
specialist 15 days Thu 2/13/20 Wed 3/4/20
10 Designing Publicity or
promotion mechanisms 20 days Thu 4/16/20 Wed 5/13/20 7
11 App Development
Implementation 85 days Thu 2/13/20 Wed 6/10/20
12 Developing a structure 10 days Thu 5/14/20 Wed 5/27/20 6,9
13 Additional features 5 days Thu 5/14/20 Wed 5/20/20 6
14 Marketing the
Application 20 days Thu 5/14/20 Wed 6/10/20 6,9
15 Branding Student
Application 5 days Thu 2/13/20 Wed 2/19/20 14
16 App Monitoring 50 days Thu 4/16/20 Wed 6/24/20
17 Conducting a test 5 days Thu 4/16/20 Wed 4/22/20 7
18 Identifying bugs 10 days Thu 6/11/20 Wed 6/24/20 14
19 Risk management 10 days Thu 4/16/20 Wed 4/29/20 8
20 Selecting App
monitoring Committee 5 days Thu 5/21/20 Wed 5/27/20 13
21 Closure 13 days Thu 6/11/20 Mon 6/29/20
22 Identifying
compatibility 2 days Thu 6/11/20 Fri 6/12/20 6,14,1
7
23 Reviewing the
application performance 2 days Thu 6/25/20 Fri 6/26/20 16,18
24 Suggesting
improvements 1 day Mon 6/15/20 Mon 6/15/20 22
25 Success of the
application 1 day Mon 6/29/20 Mon 6/29/20 22,23
Gantt Chart

Critical Path Method
This is important for the project in ascertaining the most productive chronology of
completing the activities associated with it. It will ensure maximum productivity by adopting a
sequence of rewarding strategies for the application development of QAHE university thus
contributing in overall success by reducing time and resource wastage.

PROJECT 2
Risk register
Risk register contains estimation of all the possible risks that can be incurred and their
estimation regarding occurrence i.e. probability is defined (Ng, 2018). The action plans that need
to be adopted in order to manage the risks better are also illustrated. Following is the risk register
for app development and the risks that have been ascertained are:
RISK REGISTER FOR DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT APP AT QAHE
S.
No.
Risks Prob
abilit
y
Mitigati
on
Strategy
Contingency
Action
Owner Pre action
plan
Pre
actio
n
scor
e
Post
action
plan
Post
actio
n
scor
e

1 External
factors
risk such
as change
in
consumer
preferenc
e for
mobile
applicatio
ns being
replaced
by
somethin
g more
advanced
1 Accept Prepare adequate
backup strategies
so that a new
strategy can be
adopted and
integrated as
quickly as
possible.
Core
team/
Manag
er
Regular
environme
ntal
scanning
will help
in
identifying
the
changing
market
trends so
that app
can be
developed
exhaustive
ly.
5 Control
the
impact on
failure
3
2 Budget
failure
5 Mitigate A separate fund
needs to be
developed for
accounting for
unexpected
expenditures
Financ
e team/
Manag
er
Change in
Prices of
required
material
should be
identified
and
matched
with
budgeted
costs
2 Restructu
re budget
and get
allocation
for extra
funds.
3
3 Communi
cation
problem
4 Reduce/
Control
Project manager
needs to segregate
duties and powers
Project
Manag
er
Clear
developme
nt of work
3 Enhanced
communi
cation
5

clearly to avoid
clashing of ideas
and encourage
work in an
integrated
manner.
related
goals and
duties
between
members
4 Limited
resources
5 Transfer If the resources
prove to be
insufficient
readjust the
current allocated
resources.
Project
manag
er/
Core
team
Correct
estimation
of
resource
requireme
nt and
allocate
resources
accordingl
y.
1 Developi
ng
contingen
cy plan
and
keeping
spare
resources
4
5 Withdraw
al of
sponsors
2 Mitigate Revaluate
existing
communication
strategies and
begin the process
of identification
of external
sources of project
funding.
Project
Leader
/
Market
ing
team
The
progress
and
activities
undertaken
should be
reported
regularly
5 Try to
pacify
sponsors
or find
new ones.
4
6 Ill
defined
scope
1 Avoid The scope must
be rebuilt where
the research needs
to be done at an
enhanced level
Core
team/
Project
Manag
er
Scope
needs to
be
checked
regularly
3 Redevelo
p scope in
a more
exhaustiv
e manner
4

and try to match
the scope with the
project activities.
7 Commerc
ial risks
such as
applicatio
n failure
2 Accept The manager
should develop
strategies to be
adopted if such
risk arise i.e.
another artificial
intelligence
platform to be
adopted if this
fails.
Project
Manag
er
Feasibility
of project
3 Develop
strong
backup
plan
4
8 Legal
risks
3 Avoid Thorough study
of the legal rules
and adopting a
better legal
monitoring team.
Legal
Team/
Manag
er
Study of
applicable
laws
1 Try third
party
settlemen
t or hire
lawyer
5
9 Leadershi
p risks
3 Avoid
or
Control
New Leader must
be chosen after
careful
deliberation and
evaluation of all
associated
aspects.
Leader
/ Core
team
Choose
competent
individual
4 Developi
ng
existing
leader or
selecting
new
2
10 Change
resistance
3 Mitigate Lack of
acceptance of the
new application
developed can be
mitigated by
Team
Memb
ers/
Hod/
Dean/
Increase
the
understand
ing of the
students
4 Increase
users of
applicatio
n
2