Managing a successful business project

Unit 6

Mr. Asim
UKCBC
 The COVID-19 catastrophe has caused a seismic shift in the way we live, work, and see
the world. The business sector is projecting and developing several scenarios related to the
pandemic's impact on its employees, customers, and suppliers. However, the offered strategies
and scenarios are static and cannot meet the global pandemic's dynamic changes. They have also
failed to address the peripheral in-between possibilities that will move enterprises from their
current state to their future one (Hajipour et al., 2021). The outbreak of Covid-19 resulted in a
four-month lockdown (from March to June 2020), limiting the operations of millions of
entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses, and self-employed people (Stephan,
Zbierowski, and Hanard, 2020).

Moreover, unlike the second outbreak, which hit numerous nations in the fall of 2020,
the spring outbreak was unusual and completely unforeseen. As a result, it provides a good
backdrop for assessing the preparedness of entrepreneurial responses to the pandemic (Amore,
Garofalo and Martin-Sanchez, 2022). This is why small business owners should navigate the
post-pandemic landscape and emerge stronger and more resilient than before by developing a
recovery plan.

As a researcher, I'll investigate how small businesses around the world respond quickly
and decisively to challenges posed by tragedies and unforeseen events. By conducting an "after-
action review" to gather information and insights on lessons learned, I will identify how small
businesses used their strengths, areas where they need to improve, refactor, reopen, hire,
rebudget, and resupply as well as how they retained long-term plans that support growth and
explain why they would develop strategic resilience for the future.

toc
LO1:

Project Life Cycle (PLC)

The project lifecycle is essential to the success of any project, and it plays an important
role in the context of developing a road map for small business recovery and beyond, specifically
in the context of business recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Each phase of the project
lifecycle, which includes initiation, planning, execution, and closure, contributes to the overall
success of the project (Anon, n.d.).

The Project Management Lifecycle: 4 Steps and their importance

Organizational projects are not closed systems. They take data from the organization and
outside and give it capabilities. This is why project lifecycles apply globally and across industry
groups and it has four phases.

Initiation:
Initiation phases whose scope is defining the project objective, business problem or
opportunity that will help them set the vision of the project-what is needed to be accomplished.
For example, creating a portfolio and/ or documentation that contains scope of the project,
deliverables, project duration, and forecast of the resources (MacNeil, 2022).

Planning:
And to refine the objectives, course of action required to attain, establishing the scope of
the project, we call it planning phase where there will be little or no identifiable risks until after
a significant amount of planning has been done and a team that has formed might recognize that
the cost and schedule targets are overly aggressive, thus it is riskier than previously understood
(Lutkevich, 2022).

Execution:

This is where executing phase will come in motion to complete the work defined to
satisfy the people specifications where results might require planning updates and rebase-lining.
In the context of business recovery, this stage would encompass implementing the strategies
identified for small business recovery, such as adopting new business models, leveraging digital
technologies, retraining employees, enhancing customer engagement, and adapting marketing
and sales strategies to the new business landscape (KissFlow, 2020).

Closure:

Once the project is approved and the deliverable has been produced the project is ready
for closing phase. This process is performed to finalize all activities across all phases to formally
close the project once it is already accepted by the customers, documentation of what have
learned throughout the project and archiving all relevant projects documents to be used as
historical data (Ray, 2022).

Project lifecycle stages and factors

Initiation:

Deliverables: Deliverables must be carefully defined in terms of PMP factors to ensure a

comprehensive understanding of the product's features and functions.

Quality and Risk: To meet customer expectations, quality management is essential, and risk
analysis must be conducted to identify and mitigate potential threats.

Communication: Effective communication is necessary to increase product awareness and

interest, while allocating sufficient resources is essential to support the product launch (Thoughts
about Product Adoption, User Onboarding and Good UX | Userpilot Blog, 2022).
Planning:

Deliverables: This is where emphasizing the product enhancements and new features to
meet the changing needs of the customer.

Quality: Maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty depends on quality management.

Risk: Increasing competition and market dynamics should be addressed by risk

management

Communication: effective communication contributes to product promotion and market

share maintenance.

Resources: To support production capacity and meet rising demand, sufficient resources
must be allocated (Bloom and Kotler, 2014).

Executing:

Deliverables: Focusing on product updates and diversification strategies to revitalize

sales.

Quality: Ensuring consistent product performance and dependability

Risk: Addressing market decline and competitive pressures.

Communication: Requiring reinforcing brand loyalty and differentiate the product

Resources: The allocation of resources should prioritize cost reduction and the
exploration of new market opportunities (Indeed Career Guide, 2022).

Closing:

Deliverables: Focusing on inventory management and clearance strategies

 Quality: Ensuring adequate support for existing customers.

Risk: Risk management should consider declining market demand as well as potential
financial losses.

Communication: Customer expectations should be managed, and alternative products

should be promoted through communication.

Resources: The allocation of resources should prioritize cost reduction and streamlining
operations (Practical Business Skills, 2023).

Scoping Project management plan for a small business

1- Definition of PMP
2- Scope
3- Objectives
4- Purpose
5- Deliverables
6- Timescale
7- Time management
8- Cost
9- Quality
10- Change risk
11- Stakeholder communication

Research methods and their importance to project Management

Research methods:
1- Primary
2- secondary
3- qualitative
4- quantitative

Which method did you used. And how they will help you in your research?

LO2:
In order to successfully conduct the PMP at this stage of the research, a project plan was developed to
meet the research objectives by defining the scope, sampling approaches, and technique, and creating a
work breakdown structure using a Gantt chart to monitor the activities to be performed.

Scope:

Sampling Approaches and Techniques

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Business recovery

The importance of Work breakdown in PMP:

Outline view:
Hierarchical structure
Tabular view
WBS Dictionary

Gantt Chart

LO3:

LO4:

Reflect on value gained from implementing the project and the project management.

1- Mention what was the aims and objectives of the research

2- Start mentioning each PLC stage and how it helped you in the research
3- How the research method you used helped in the research
4- How the WBS and Gantt chart helped in the research
5- What did you learned from the project ( how small business recovered)