PROJECT MANAGEMENT REVIEW

1. Which of the following is NOT a "Project-based organisation"?

(a) Vinamilk
(b House construction co.
(c) Red Cross
(d) Bull Investment consultants

2. Which of the following is one of the 5 C's of Projects' environment?

(a) Context
(b) Complexity
(c) Customer focus
(d) All of the above

3. Which of the following is NOT one of the elements of the ICOM model?

(a) Inputs
(b) Competitiveness
(c) Outputs
(d) Mechanisms

4. The capital expenses needed to carry out the project are presented on the:

(a) Product breakdown structure

(b) Work breakdown structure
(c) Organisational breakdown structure
(d) Cost breakdown structure

5. Service quality is based on:

(a) Precise and measurable set of characteristics of a product

(b Shareholders expectations
(c) The ISO quality assurance system
(d) None of the above

6. Media is considered "an internal stakeholder" of a project.

(a) TRUE
(b) FALSE
7. "Managing risks and opportunities" belongs to the "Do it - D3" stage of the 4D model
managing the project process.

(a) TRUE
(b) FALSE

8. Time, people and performance are three major categories for risk analysis

(a) TRUE
(b) FALSE

9. PERT (Programme Evaluation and Review Technique) requires 3 time estimates for each
activity

(a) TRUE
(b) FALSE

10. The complexity framework consists of Structural, Socio-political and Technical

Complexities

(a) TRUE
(b) FALSE

- Explain the duties of a Project Manager and give an example.

- Brief the 4 perspectives on business projects according to the balanced scorecard. And
analyse the “Customers and Suppliers”
ICOM Model

The 5 C’s Model – The environment in which projects operate (external)

• Context – the external general influences on the organisation (e.g. PESTEL)

• Completeness – how much of the end requirement a project will deliver
• Competitiveness – how many other organisations will be competing to deliver that work
• Customer focus – the expectation the customers will have their needs met by the
project
• Complexity – the level of difficulty or complication of the project

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• ‘chunking’ or ‘unbundling’
• Breaking down large activities into comprehensible or manageable units
– Gives people responsibility for each manageable part
– Facilitates financial control, individual parts can have their consumption of
resources tracked
– Bottom level will be a list of work packages
• A grouping of project elements or components into a logical hierarchy which defines the
total project scope
• Essentially a “to-do list” of all the deliverables (not time sequenced activities)
• Creates a linked set of hierarchical activities
– Need to build up individual activities to make them work together
– Independent units, but which are still part of the whole
• Decisions made at this stage are fundamental to success!
Critical Path Method (CPM)

‘The longest sequence of dependent activities that must be completed in order for a project to
finish’

• Earliest start time EST

– Determined by activities preceding the event
• Latest start time LST
– The latest time all preceding activities will need to be complete
• Total float
– The difference between EST and LST

• Critical Path: The sequence of tasks that must be completed on time in order to ensure
that a project is finished by its deadline.
• It is the longest path through a project network diagram that determines the earliest
possible completion date for a project.
• Tasks on the critical path are those that have no slack or float time, meaning that they
cannot be delayed without delaying the entire project. Any delay in completing a critical
path task will automatically delay the project's completion date.

PERT

Program - Evaluation - Review - Technique

u Likely a single value for ‘time for completion’ will have an error
u Three estimates for each activity are required
u Optimistic (o) – if conditions are ideal
u Most probable (m) – if conditions are ‘normal’
u Pessimistic (p) – if things go wrong
u Expected time is (o + 4m + p)/6
u Use expected time in critical path analysis
u May effect the duration, may change the critical path
u The downside
u Shows outcome (partial picture) but does not indicate probability
u Additional complexity may not be justified by a return in accuracy of the plans
u Relies on people being accurate in their forecasting
4 D’s Model

The Quality Bridge Model

 • Quality may be conformance to specification and measurable (manufacturing)
• Quality may be determined by customer orientation, expectations and perceptions
(service)

• The product based view (an internal view)

• Definable and measurable set of characteristics
• Fit for purpose
• Conforming to specification
• Defect free
• Customer expectations and perceptions (external view)
• The level of quality expected compared to the level perceived to have been
received
• Synthesis of objective and subjective elements of product and service
• A judgement of value

The Iron Triagle

Complexity Analysis
Risk Analysis

u How risky is an event or activity?

u Risk is a function of tow things:
u Probability and Impact
u How likely is it to occur, what is the probability?
u Improbable to highly likely
u What might be the effect (impact/severity) of the event?
u Critical – will cause total failure
u Major – will hold up or increase costs in one or more areas
u Minor – will only cause inconvenience

u Gather peoples’ perceptions as to probability and impact

u Use scales
u Low–medium–high; 1 to 3; 1 to 5 (APM); 1 to 10 (PMI)
u Ratings based on opinion or perception
u Chart on matrix
u Visual identity of high risks needing attention

Failure mode effect analysis (FMEA)

u Consider three elements of each activity or path through the activities:

u Likelihood, severity and hideability
u Estimate each on a scale of 1–10
u Total risk is product of all three: likelihood × severity × hideability

u Mathematical models of the scenario

u Enables a large number of variables
to be considered
u Useful guides for decision making
u Four models shown:
1. Expected Value
u The expected value of the event
u is the possible outcome multiplied by
u the probability of its occurrence
u Useful for comparing several projects or alternatives

2. Sensitivity analysis
u Use expected, optimistic and pessimistic value of inputs (e.g. costs)
u Shows effect on the outcome of a change in the variable
u Shows where management attention and control is needed
u Example
u Prices on materials and labour likely to fluctuate
u Contract price is fixed in advance
u Need to see effect of fluctuations on profit
u Costs of materials say £0.6m
u Costs of direct labour say £0.2m
u Contribution to overheads say £0.35m (175% of direct labour)
u Revenues: fixed at £1.2m
u Profit = revenue – material costs – (labour + overheads)

Balanced Scorecard (BSC)

• The Balanced Scorecard, or Integral Scorecard, is a strategic management methodology

used to define and monitor the strategy of an organization. Robert Kaplan and David
Norton created this methodology in 1992 (original article). The Balanced Scorecard was
originally developed as a tool to implement the corporate strategy and is a common
method in companies of all sizes and industries. Thus, it also affects the way projects in
many organizations are structured and managed.

• A framework that many organisations use to determine the nature of the return on an
investment is the balanced scorecard.

• The BSC is based on the balance and alignment between the elements of the overall
strategy and its operational elements. This also includes projects within an organization.
• The universal elements are the mission (the purpose), the vision (what the organization
aspires to), the core values (what the organization believes in), the perspectives, and
the objectives.
• On the other hand, the operational elements are the key indicators or KPI (whether
induction or result indicators) and strategic initiatives (projects that help you achieve
your objectives).

• Describe and communicate an organization’s strategy.

• Measure the strategy implementation and performance.
• Track the actions to improve results.
1. Shareholders – what are the intended financial benefits in the short, medium or long term of
the project?
2. Customers and suppliers – what are the benefits that they will receive from the project, be it
direct benefit (reduced costs, for instance) or simply increasing goodwill? Will it enable the
organization to work with a different market of customers or suppliers?
3. Internally – how will the project improve our business processes?
4. Innovation and learning – how much will we learn from the project?

(Mỗi cái này lại có slide riêng cơ ở Week 10, cái Customers and Suppliers là câu trong mock test
đấy, you mở ra xem lại nha, dài quá t k paste ra đây)

Responsibilities of a project manager

 • Line/functional managers
• Responsibility for people who work under them
• Managing the status quo
• $

Key Activities

• Shaping goals and objectives

• Obtaining resources
• Building roles and structures for their team
• Establishing good communications
• Seeing the whole picture
• Moving things forwards (especially in difficult circumstances)

Role and Skills

• Background and experience relevant to needs of project

• Leadership and strategic expertise for the ‘big picture’
• Technical expertise for sound decisions
• Interpersonal competence and people skills to champion, communicate, facilitate,
motivate, and so on
• Proven managerial ability for getting things done

Leadership in the context of projects

• Energise & support change

• Secure commitment
• Set directions
• Support, challenge and develop people
• Use a facilitate – empower style rather than a command – control style

Project - focused organizations - khong chac lam

Projects are central to our economy

• Siemens estimate 50% of revenue is from projects
• Management consultants earn 90% revenue from projects
Whole sectors of industry are project-based organizations
• Engineering
• Construction
• IT
• Defense

Overall, these combine to provide a notion of the value proposition from a project. Such
terminology has become commonplace in the justification of time, energy and resources on
business projects. The originators of the balanced scorecard promote a logical cause–effect
building of benefits from project work, with the objective to demonstrate how each project will
impact organizational strategy.

Demonstrating such benefits is the purpose of an approach known as benefits mapping. Using
this, it is possible to work back from the business benefit required, see how this maps to
organizational objectives and then determine the changes and supporting actions required to
yield those benefits.

Project environment - basic terminology (sustainability) - deo hieu lam

The project environment

• Work can be done anywhere

• Increasing competition
• Every organisation has to meet performance objectives
• Falling trade barriers
• Numbers of international collaborations have increased
• …but geopolitical tensions to be aware of
• Globalisation has impacted on the nature of work
• Effective quality management leads to competitive advantage
Sustainable Development is ‘development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland
Commission)

Stakeholder dài vkl nma t nghĩ n sẻ hỏi cái này, you hảy xem lại slide Week 3 nha