Introduction to Projects &

Project Management

Pauline A. Morrison
Project Officer

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

Aim of Session

• Provide an overview and create a basic awareness of general project

management principles
• Introduce standard processes and templates to use when managing
projects

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

Which of these is a project?

1. Responding to a request from the Scottish Government to design a

training course by March 2011, for 250 medical staff with a budget of
£50,000
2. Responding to a request from your manager to e-mail them a
departmental-wide performance report, on the last Friday of each
month for the foreseeable future
3. Organising a yearly team building day
4. Completion and submission of Sickness Absence forms to HR on a
monthly basis
5. Responding to a request from your manager to design an internal
project management training course, for all staff to have been trained
by March 2011

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

What is a project?

• A project features the following characteristics;

o Specific start and end date
o Series of tasks to achieve a defined outcome or objective
o Uses people or resources to achieve that objective

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

Which of these is a project?

1. Responding to a request from the Scottish Government to design a

training course by March 2011, for 250 medical staff with a budget of
£50,000
2. Responding to a request from your manager to e-mail them a
departmental-wide performance report, on the last Friday of each
month for the foreseeable future
3. Organising a yearly team building day
4. Completion and submission of Sickness Absence forms to HR on a
monthly basis
5. Responding to a request from your manager to design an internal
project management training course, for all staff to have been trained
by March 2011

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

What is project management?

The planning, organising, directing and controlling of....

....activities, people and money....

....to achieve a specific objective

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

Project objective….an example

Have a relaxing holiday and return to work refreshed and energised...

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

You need to do these main things…..

Or else this will happen…..

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

It’s a balancing act!

Time

Quality Money/
Expectations
Resources

Scope

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

What is the project life-cycle?

• Logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or

objectives

Initiate Plan Deliver Review Close

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

What do you do at each stage?
• Initiate
o Define scope
o Develop outline business case *

• Plan
o Identify milestones and outputs
o Identify required funding and resources
o Identify and analyse risks *
o Identify and analyse stakeholders
o Undertake E&D impact assessment *
o Develop project initiation document

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

What do you do at each stage?

• Deliver
o Communicate with stakeholders
o Identify project governance requirements
o Identify and undertake commissioning exercises *
o Monitor and report on project progress
o Manage risks
o Record lessons learned

• Review
o Hold post project review meeting

• Close
o Close project

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

Tools to help you in practice

• ‘How To’ Guides

• Starting a Project checklist
• Project initiation document
• Project plan/Gantt Chart template
• Resource Analysis toolkit
• Risk Register template
• Progress Reporting (RAG) template
• Financial forecast template
• Lessons Learned log template
• Post Project Review Meeting template

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

Any questions?

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland

Burning Issues & Troubleshooting

Quality Education for a Healthier Scotland