SPM1 Report: Strategic Project Management, Planning, and Analysis

This report, prepared for SPM1, delves into strategic project management, focusing on how projects align with an organization's strategic objectives. It examines the meaning of strategic objectives, the methods of aligning projects to these objectives, and the factors influencing project selection, including internal (SWOT analysis) and external (PEST analysis) environmental considerations. The report further evaluates the roles of project stakeholders in planning a project, providing a comprehensive overview of project management principles, with a specific application to a firm named Issworld. The report provides a detailed analysis of project planning, stakeholder roles, and the impact of various factors on project selection to support strategic objectives. The report explores the significance of project stakeholders, emphasizing their influence on project outcomes and overall organizational success. This report is a valuable resource for students studying project management, providing insights into the core concepts and practical applications within a business context, all available on Desklib.

SPM1: Strategic project management planning sheet
SPM1.0 AC 1.01
Discuss how projects support the strategic objectives of an organisation
Introduction:
Projects are conducted to develop new services, products or outcomes that help the strategic direction of an
organization. Project management is the study which deals with conducting any defined project with intention to valid
conclusion or information (Regenold. and Rojas, 2019). With clear planning of the project, chances of better outcomes
are higher and optimized. In the present time, aim of project management is to start and complete project with better
outcomes or results. For this project, firm named as Issworld is one of the management firm used to perform
activities such as management accounting and activities to enables corporate social responsibility. Also, report will
cover meaning of the strategic objectives, aligning project to strategic objectives, factors such as internal and external
factors that lays down emphasis on actual selection of the project. Also, report will cover analysis of project
stakeholders. Also, project will cover project study in favor of Issworld.
P1) What is meant by strategic objectives of an organization?
The objective defines as the organization has to achieve its success to create the strategy. The term strategic
objectives are generally forced by externally and classified into eight different types of categories such as (1) Market
standing relates to the preferred share of the present as well as new markets, (2) Innovation that relates to develop
new category products or services as well as skills etc., (3) Human resources are in relation to the selection as well as
development of the workers in an organization, (4) Financial resources that are a kind of source of the capital and also
their uses, (5) Physical resources correspond to the equipment and their utilization, (6) Productivity that is in relation
to the proportionality between the resources and output, (7) Social responsibility means to share the awareness as
well as responsiveness to the stakeholders, (8) Profit requirements that means the achievement related to the
financial as well as strategically growth from production.
P2) How can projects support the strategic objectives of an organisation?
The project always has to follow the primary goal of the organization. The primary goal should be its strategic
objective of the organization. If the organization wants to develop a new type of product then the target of the
product should focus only on productivity of the Issworld. The project becomes a good efficient project while it only
focuses on a single goal and by using this technique it is easier to achieve the target of the project ( DUPREEZ, 2019).
The initial focus of any project should be its scope then it focuses on the planning phase of the project. To execute the
project successfully, the overall strategy is divided into smaller parts so that the execution way becomes easy for any
project. The project processing goes on one by one milestone and at the last moment, it reaches at the achievement
of the organization goal.
P3) How do you align projects to the strategic objectives?
To align the project to the strategic objectives, there are two different types of reasons. The first one is to compare
the project to the organization goal so that for the project manager, it is cleared about the operational context of the
organization (Building Block in Strategic Project Management, 2019). The second one is to understand the
organizational goals properly as because the goal is proportional to the organizational strategy and that’s why the
execution of the project reaches to the success point. In general sense, the alignment of the project maintain the
following like: (1) Analyze the overall strategic goal for development of strategy. (2) Development of the systematic
approach so that it helps to initiate as well as prioritize the alignment of the project to the business strategy. (3)
Evaluation and also repetition of the strategic goals on daily basis.
Conclusion:
In order to achieve a specific strategic objective, organization conducts a project in which various activities are
conducted. It is concluded that strategic objectives of the project is mainly linked to scope of the project for which its
started. With strategic objectives, focus is to be lied on successful completion of the work.
SPM1.1 AC 1.02
SPM1 planning sheet
Page 1 of 12

Evaluate internal and external environmental factors that influence the selection of a project that
supports strategic objectives
Introduction:
Selection of project is important in order to ensure organization conducts the most profitable and beneficial project.
There are different number of factors such as internal such as employees, management, strategies, plans which lays
down emphasis on effective conduction of the project work (Indahwati and et. al., 2019). Also, external factor such as
the political, economic, social etc., have led down focus on clear and effective completion of the project. Also,
influence of both internal and external factors are putting in focus to led positive focus for selection of the project in
an effective manner or way.
P1) What internal factors influence the selection of a project e.g |SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis is a typical framework that is used for the evaluation of the organization’s strategic growth. SWOT
analysis is the composition of some internal as well as external factors. Issworld should use this analysis for the
guidance purpose (Alnaggar and Pitt, 2019). The four factors of this analysis are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and also threats. Strength is in relation to the characteristics of the project that provides the advantages among the
other factors. Weaknesses are such kind of factors that is the sign of disadvantage for the organization. Opportunities
are also positive factors that related to the chances that the organization gets. Threats are one of the negative signs of
the analysis that can occur such problems in any organization.
P2) What external factors influence the selection of a project e.g PEST analysis
The PEST analysis is one kind of strategic industrial tool that is used for the evaluation, arrangements as well as
tracking the macro economic factors which reflects on the business. This analysis determines opportunities as well as
threats because if Political, Economic, Social, Technological forces. Political factors are related in that cases when the
government interfere in the economical field (Mansell and et. al., 2019). Economic factors are related to the economic
growth as well as exchange rates and interest rate etc. Social factors are related to cultural aspects as well as rate of
population growth etc. The technological factors are related to technological aspects such as R&D activity as well as
rate of technological changing etc.
P3) How should project plans be amended when considering these factors? The SWOT analysis is one kind of
analysis that helps to evaluate the strategic growth of the organization (Klimova, 2019). On the other hand, the PEST
analysis is typical analysis of evaluation and tracking such factors that are related to the economy as well as politics.
The SWOT analysis is the composition of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. In addition to this, the PEST
analysis is also the composition of political, economic, social and technological factors. The SWOT analysis helps to
identify the right way for the business strategy. It helps to meet the strategy so that the business can improve in its
own way. The PEST analysis helps to take the right decision to the organization and also motivates the team to keep
tracking in the right way.
Conclusion:
SWOT and PEST analysis are conducted in order to analyze the internal and external effects on a project for an
organization. Projects are also impacted by the organizational system which is comprised not only of organization
structures which were described earlier but also general management and governance aspects.
SPM1.2 AC 2.01

Evaluate the roles of project stakeholders in planning a project
SPM1 planning sheet
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Introduction:
Project stakeholders are personnel who have various duties in the project that they must fulfil and perform. In an
organization or say project, where stakeholders such as investor, customer, suppliers, dealer etc. Also, the purpose of
building project stakeholder is to building chain of the people who have common interest and emphasis on activities
(Sullivan and et. al., 2019). With stakeholder such as investor are need to be equipped at one place to fund money for
and operations of the project.
P1) What is a project stakeholder?
In the project management, the stakeholders are related to the outcome of the project. They are one type of team
members in the project like project managers, executives, project sponsors, users as well as customers. The
stakeholders are the effected persons in the project management and correspond with the project outcome. They are
not exactly the shareholders. The employees may be as stakeholders because they can take a part in the success of
the organization.
Who are the key project stakeholders? The key stakeholders are as:
Customers, project manager, project team members, project sponsor, steering committee, executives, resource
managers etc.
P2) How should these be identified when planning a project?
There are some kind techniques that can help to identify the project stakeholder in the project management. Firstly,
begin with the project charter where project charter is typically a document that exists in the project management
and assigns to the project manager (Hashemizadeh and Ju, 2019). Secondly, review all the contract related documents
that can help to find the stakeholders while the agreement takes place in the project. Thirdly, review all the
organizational assets as well as the organizational factors that register can give with many of the stakeholders.
Fourthly, interviewing of the experts that helps to collect the stakeholders in the project management. Fifthly,
Conduction of Brainstorming sessions which is one of the method that helps to identify the stakeholder in the project
planning.
P3) What roles do they play when planning a project?
The stakeholders play an important role in the project management. There are different types of stakeholders such as
project leader, project team members, sponsors, project customer and functional manager. The project leader plays
the head role in the project. He has the responsibility of defining, planning, controlling as well as leading the overall
project (Strategic project theory, 2018) The project team members include in the project for the production
purpose and they also have a participation in the project management process by contributing their skills as well as
efforts. The sponsor has the responsibility to follow as well as provide the guidance in the overall project and
becomes as a connection within the upper management team and the project leader. The project customer is the
important part in the project management because their requirements motivate the project and receives the
outcome of the project. The functional manager provides the rules and regulations to the involved people in the
project.
Conclusion:
Stakeholders are important to the project as they have very specific skills and expertise for managing various aspects
of the project like budget, risk and others. Identifying stakeholders is a primary task because all the important
decisions during the initiation, planning and execution stages of the project are made by these stakeholders. The five
primary project stakeholders are the project manager, the project team, the functional management, the sponsor, and
the customer.
SPM1.3 AC 2.02
Evaluate ways in which to establish the viability of a project against specified criteria

Introduction:
A project that is to be conducted must be viable in order to maintain the sustainability of the organization.
Determining the viability of the project mainly requires evaluation of the number of different factors and also viability
potential will differ from one small business to another. At time of the project, a project will not be considered, if in
case it would exceed its value than cost incurred in it.
P1) What do we mean by viability of a project? Why is this important? The viability study is a typical analysis that
helps to determine about the process by which the business earns its estimated profit. It is an analysis related to the
cost as well as the time of the project (Khakimov and Kapustin, 2019). If the project exceeds the estimated cost then
the project considers as a fail project or rejected project. Similar case has been occur in the case of timing factor. The
project becomes failure when it cross its proposed timing. The factors of the viability study are cost, time, manpower
as well as quality. The viability study is important in the project management because with the help of this study, it
has been determined that project is profitable or not.
P2) At what stages does viability need to be checked?
In the project management, initiation is the first stage that defines how the project of any organization initiates. The
planning phase is the second stage that determines the overall activities that are related to the project and draws a
budget map. Execution is the third step that helps to provide the process by which the project can be executed.
Monitoring and controlling is the fourth step by which the project is continuously checked by the project manager.
Closing is the last stage by which the project is closed and remove all the contracts as well as stakeholder sign-off. In
the motoring and control part, the viability study is being checked by the factors such as cost as well as time-frame.
P3) The ‘initiate’ phase and the ‘plan’ phase are arguably the most important phases when it comes to establishing
the viability of a project
‘Initiate’ phase involves understanding:
The overall organization is impacted by the project. The upper management team or CEO determines the success and
their expectations are to achieve the organizational goal and they want the best performance from all of the
employees of the organization. The project limitations are PMBOK defined limits, Human resource limitation,
Software limitation, IT limitations, Vendor and supplier limitations and also Green limitations (Strategic project
management and strategic behaviour, 2000). The project leader uses the shared understanding that is
related to the project outcomes. There are four techniques in the shared understanding and they are the business
needs, the different procedures of the participation in the project, ability of the confirmation of the changes by the
employees, measurement of the project results.
‘Plan’ phase involves understanding:
There are different steps that related to the managing process of the project risks. They are –
Generation of the risk register, identify the risks, identify the opportunities, Determination of the likelihoods,
Determination of the risk response, Estimation of the risks, Review of the risks.
In the project management, the break down stages are –
Define the tasks, breaks the project into milestone, Preparation of the steps, Dividing the multi-step tasks into small-
step tasks, dividing the long stretches into smaller parts.
The scheduling process is –
Define the activities, prepare the activity list, milestone, activity sequences, generation of Gantt chart, Creation of the
network diagram, Critical path etc.
The identifying of the resources is –
Details of the required work, Advanced planning, Confirmation of resources availability, checking of skills, Remember
to the book equipment.
The communication channel ids calculated by using this formula as n (n-1)/2, where n is the number of stakeholders.
Conclusion:
The organization should only proceed with the process once it is ensured that the project will be viable and will
provide beneficial outcomes for the organisation. A project is not typically considered viable if its value exceeds its
costs. Sometimes the cost viability of a project can change over the course of the project's development or
implementation. Moreover, project viability is mainly depending on its quality and prospects of the topics being
suggested at the time of an initiation. Lastly, viability of the project is mainly depending on when it gives value to the
topic than its actual cost or spending.
SPM1 planning sheet
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SPM1.4 AC 2.03, 2.04
Examine the components and characteristics of a project plan and how you would go about preparing
one

Introduction:
Project plan is developed in order to define various attributes of the project during the planning stage. Project plan is
a formal documents designed to guide control and execution of a project. A project plan is a key to a successful
project and documents that needs to start and finish off the project (Porter, 2019). Purpose of project plan has mainly
linked to perform project activities in well-defined manner. For project conducted by Issworld, role of project plan is
to conduct project with actual aim or objectives.
P1) Why is a project plan important?
In the project management, there are four phases of initiation, planning, execution and closing. After the completion
of the initiation phase, the planning phase is the important in the project management because by using it, the overall
activities of the project can be clearly determined (Katias and Karya, 2019). In the planning part, it determines the
description of the project, division of the project into smaller tasks, estimation of the resources related to the project,
development of the schedule, Identification of the risks, generate a budget and also summarize the planning process.
By using the planning process, it ensures the determination the project risks, improvement of the communication and
also control of the project, decrement of the time as well as cost etc.
P2) What are the components/ characteristics of a project plan?
The project plan is the composition of such factors as scope statement, Critical success factors, deliverables, work
breakdown structure, schedule, budget, quality, human resource plan, stakeholder list, communication, risk register
and procurement plan.
 Develop the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) -It’s a list of the project’s deliverables broken down into
the components, or sub-deliverable, needed to achieve those deliverables Sequence activities- Once we know the deliverables and their components, we then carefully identify and
sequence the activities needed to achieve those deliverables. Identify and assign resources - Here you will identify and assign resources (people and budget) to each
deliverable, component, or activity Estimate duration- You will estimate duration, or the time it takes from start to finish, of each deliverable
and its corresponding components and activities
 Identify the critical path – This is about identifying those activities that have no flexibility in start or end
date; the idea being that if any activity on the critical path is late, the whole project will be late

P3) How did you go about preparing yours for your apprenticeship project?
There are some kinds of tips that helps to prepare for apprenticeship project and they are:
All of the information of the dress code policy must be known to the candidate because it enhances the impression of
the candidate in the organization.
Notes must be made by the candidate.
The candidate always has the positive spirit and confidence.
If there is any doubt in any topic, it needs to clear the doubts by asking questions.
Conclusion
Always introduce own details to the organization.
It must be complete the daily basis home work.
The candidate must congratulate himself for his work.
The schedule and work breakdown structure I developed for the project is shown as follows.
SPM1 planning sheet
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WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish
0 On Site Facility Cleaning Project 44 days Tue 05-02-19 Fri 05-04-19
1 Initiate 7 days Tue 05-02-19 Wed 13-02-19
1.1 Team Meeting 2 days Tue 05-02-19 Wed 06-02-19
1.2 Requirement Analysis 2 days Thu 07-02-19 Fri 08-02-19
1.3 Feasibility Analysis 3 days Mon 11-02-19 Wed 13-02-19
1.4 Develop Project Proposal 0 days Wed 13-02-19 Wed 13-02-19
2 Plan 14 days Thu 14-02-19 Tue 05-03-19
2.1 Define Project Scope 1 day Thu 14-02-19 Thu 14-02-19
2.2 Determine SMART Objectives 2 days Fri 15-02-19 Mon 18-02-19
2.3 Estimate Schedule 2 days Tue 19-02-19 Wed 20-02-19
2.4 Estimate Budget 2 days Thu 21-02-19 Fri 22-02-19
2.5 Risk Assessment and Mitigation 3 days Mon 25-02-19 Wed 27-02-19
2.6 Quality Management Plan 4 days Thu 28-02-19 Tue 05-03-19
2.7 Develop Project Plan Document 0 days Tue 05-03-19 Tue 05-03-19
3 Execute 15 days Wed 06-03-19 Tue 26-03-19
3.1 Conduct On Site Facility Cleaning Process 15 days Wed 06-03-19 Tue 26-03-19
3.2 Project Handover 0 days Tue 26-03-19 Tue 26-03-19
4 Monitor and Control 15 days Wed 06-03-19 Tue 26-03-19
4.1 Monitor Project Progress 15 days Wed 06-03-19 Tue 26-03-19
4.2 Receive Project Report 0 days Tue 26-03-19 Tue 26-03-19
5 Close 8 days Wed 27-03-19 Fri 05-04-19
5.1 Review the Entire Project 5 days Wed 27-03-19 Tue 02-04-19
5.2 Measure Project Performance 2 days Wed 03-04-19 Thu 04-04-19
5.3 Sign Off 1 day Fri 05-04-19 Fri 05-04-19
5.4 Project Closing 0 days Fri 05-04-19 Fri 05-04-19