Management of Projects
Management of Projects
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Student declaration
I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own. I have clearly referenced
any sources used in the work. I understand that false declaration is a form of malpractice.
In addition to the above PASS criteria, this assignment gives you the opportunity
to submit evidence in order to achieve the following MERIT and DISTINCTION
grades
Indicative
Grade Descriptor Contextualisation
characteristic/s
M1 Identify and An effective approach to To achieve M1, a thorough
apply strategies study and research has analysis and strategy needs to be
to find been applied. taken to find appropriate
appropriate organizational structure (Task 2.1)
solutions
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HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION
Assignment Brief
Pearson BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Electrical &
Qualification Electronic Engineering
Assignment title
PROJECT CASE:
The company's Board of Directors has appointed Peter Smith as Project Manager,
with the objective to select a project to work on and plan out the project
management.
You have been appointed Assistant to Peter Smith, Project Manager of this project.
Task 1 (LO 1: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and M2, M3, D1, D3)
1.2 & D1 Discuss viability of projects with particular emphasis on the criteria for
success/failure
In order to achieve D1, a detailed analysis must be taken to prove the viability of the
project using defined criteria
1.3 & M3 Explore principles behind project management systems and procedures
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HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION
In order to achieve M3, discussion within the context of project case needed to be
presented and communicated appropriately
1.4 & D3
i. Identify the key elements involved in terminating projects and conducting post-project
appraisals
ii. Develop a lessons-learned report for this project (D3)
In order to achieve D3, a report sample needs to be generated to show understanding
and ability to think creatively about the project closing process
2.5 & D2 Plan and specify human resources and requirements for a project (D2)
In order to achieve D2, a detailed plan for HR involved in the project must be
identified with clearly defined acceptance criteria for selecting human resources
involved
Evidence Evidence
Summary of evidence required by student
checklist presented
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Sources of information
PRESENTATION
1. The assignment should have a cover page that includes the assignment title,
assignment number, course title, module title, Lecturer/tutor name and
students name. Attach all the pages of assignment brief/achievement summary
with your report and leave them blank for official use.
6. Your assignment should be word-processed and should not exceed from 2,000 to
2,500 words in length.
9. The assignment should contain a list of any references used in the report.
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Task 1
1.1
i. Project background & objectives :
Bear Ltd. is a company specializing in game development service. You have a budget
of $50,000 to start a new game development project that you could sell on apps store to
earn profit for the company. You have to finish up the project within 6 months.
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Stakeholders with high power and high interest should be managed with the
utmost care: President,The company's Board of Directors,Project Manager
Stakeholders with high power and low interest should be kept satisfied:
Government.
Stakeholders with low power and high interest should be kept informed:
Game designers, employees of company, partners.
Stakeholders with low power and low interest require less effort than the rest.
They should only be monitored:customer, other company.
Engagement levels:
Neutral : Customer, partner
Leading: President,The company's Board of Directors,Project Manager
Unaware: Government
Resistant: Other company
Supportive : Game designers, employees of company, partner
1.2
The success of company should have those elements below:
- The time to get the project done is within 6 moth from 1 st January, 2016 to 1st May,
2016. It will be on the market in June, 2016.
- About the employees, It must have 32 people working in 3 group: Engineering
designers with 12 people, Testers with 10 people, maketing with 5 people, and 5
group manager to management .
- The cost that we estimated is 45,000$. It including:
+ Payroll: 20,000 $
+ Advertising cost: 20,000 $
+ License cost (information):5,000$
The project will be completed in 6 month so we need to make a clear and specific
plan to process it through budget and risk carefully
The period of time that required to recover the cost of investment will be (assume as
the annual cash inflows =17,250 $):
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Rt 20, 000 18, 000 16, 000 15, 000
NVP R0 45, 000 $10,324.08988 0
(1 i) t
(1 0,1) (1 0,1) (1 0,1) (1 0,1) 4
1 2 3
IRR 10,117%
the criteria for success/failure
Deliverables Success : The new game have high quality, attract players,
Procedural Success :project completed on time ( the game is completed after 5
month), the cost to devolop new game is $45,000 (under $50,000).Good-organized,
structured and managed,
Stakeholder Success :Relating to the "subjective" elements of the project, including
stakeholder engagement, organizational performance, team/staff perspectives,
project environment, and team relationships.
1) Initiation:
As an assistant of project manager I have to manage this to produce a new
application for the company for the market. Firstly, we have to define all project
requirements, time, cost, human resources, budgetsetc
o Decide to use budget to devolop a new game
o Determine the purpose of project : Sell game on apps store to earn profit for
the company.
o Appoint a project manager and sponsor:The company's Board of Directors
has appointed Peter Smith as Project Manager and you have been appointed
Assistant to Peter Smith.
o Gather any information to help understand the requirements of the project by
answering the what, when, who, why, where and how questions
o Development of the project charter or scope.
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Before you start to think about getting other people involved there are several key choices
to make:
1. What game engine are you going to use, or will you code one from scratch?
I try to keep things open source, so as a game engine I chose to use Blender'sinternal
game engine. Other free options are Unity, Spring and many others. Have a look at
the wikipedia page for game engines.
You choice of engine may be influenced by things like:
When you create a game you have to think about who will play it and how they will find out
about it. As I found out, making a game is 10% developing and 90% promoting.
You also have to think about who will play it. What makes it stand out from other
computer games? There are millions of FPS's and RTS's, yours must be slightly different to
make an impact. But it can't be so radical so as to turn people away.
Make sure you have an audience.
2) Planning:
All steps in project planning must be plan carefully. Because of that we have to execute the
project: promotion product, recruitment, and licenseetc.
We have a list of specific goals to implement for the project:
o Create a specific list of things that need to happen in order for your goals to
be met
o Develop project management plan
o Collect requirements
o Define scope
o Create WBS
o Develop schedule
o Estimate cost
o Plan quality
o Plan HR
o Plan risk management
o Plan procurement
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A name is an important thing to chose. Pick a name that tells people about the game,
isn't ambiguous, then, Google it to see if it has been taken by another company, or
represents something you don't wish it to.
Creating a consistent style is rather important. No-one would dream of mixing 16x16 pixel
textures with very good 3D models, simply because the effect would be so weird. The same
applies for smaller things. Pick an overall style and communicate this to any concept artists.
Styles can be things like:
Dark industrial
Post-apocalyptic
Fairly tale
Cartoon
retro-futuristic
dated
When you are developing make sure the menu's, models and textures reflect this,
otherwise the resulting game won't fit together nicely.
3) Executing:
o Spend the bulk of your money and keep your resources busy "executing" the
project plan
o Project manager spends a considerable amount of time in communication
making sure the resources (or people, equipment and materials) are available
to do their work and know what work needs to be completed.
o Project manager will use all of management skills to implement and manage
cost and quality, risks and change, and several other factors
There are a few sneaky surprises that caught up on me part-way through developing.
One of these was the filing system.
When you buy a game you don't see hundreds of images, textures and sounds in the same
folder as the executable. Rather they are sorted neatly into folders with sensible names like
"Textures" or "Sounds" Planning this is key to good developing. As is planning how you get
models from data files into the game files.
Be specific and make a document that communicates this clearly to team members. Have a
look at my sheet to see what detail I went into. Things like:
Folder names
File-types
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Contents of data files
You can also plan a time-line, but I would advise waiting until you are well into the
project. There is nothing worse than having to rush to meet a dead-line, and having to
go back later and fix up a programming botch-job. Pretty much everything takes longer
than you think. I had planned for my game to be finished in about a year, now, coming
up on it's second anniversary, there's still quite a bit to be done (but the end is in sight).
Also plan out communication with your team members. IRC is a good system, as is file-
syncing with a system like dropbox. Setting up a website is a good idea about now.
The next three steps should be done at roughly the same time. With you doing the third,
as bits of the other two are done by others.
3) Controlling and monitoring:
The Monitoring and Controlling process oversees all the tasks and metrics necessary to
ensure that the approved and authorized project is within scope, on time, and on budget so
that the project proceeds with minimal risk.
This process involves comparing actual performance with planned performance and taking
corrective action to yield the desired outcome when significant differences exist. Monitoring
and Controlling process is continuously performed throughout the life of the project.
o Watch work progress and keeping on eye on the original project goal to
ensure your project sticks within the original project scope
o Project control:
Control is the key ingredient for project management success
The perfect plan does not exist
Is the process of collecting data against targets and reviewing them at
appropriate intervals
Need to make sure that everyone is aware of the monitoring and
control procedures used
Possible kinks
o Control time :
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o Control cost :
Is a key element of project control besides time, quality, and scope
Poor cost management could lead to project termination
When looking at monitoring expenditure and timescale, the best
measure is milestone deliverables: was it achieved on time, how are
costs progressing, have all the deliverables arrived
o Control cost overspending:
There will be times that project cost forecast (estimation) fall below the
actual spend which would lead to cutting expenditures (personnel,
equipment, and facilities)
Any cost reduction could have a major effect on producing the project
deliverable
o Control progress reporting:
Control will require progress reporting with the appropriate collection of
data
5) Project closing :
Closeout the project properly create significant benefits for our company, their
organization and for better success prospects for future projects, increased employee
motivation, better customer relations, improved attractiveness to repeat and new business
and so on...
Close project when all the work has been completed. Hopefully you have got a website
set up, as well as spread those posters around. Now it's time to go back to all those sites,
and post a download link (or if you are selling it (pah), a buying link). If there are forums of
people who play your style game, then post links there. Put a link in your signature. Do
your best to let people know about it.
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Sites like sourceforge offer free hosting for projects like this. Chose a place that doesn't
require signup to download, and uses as few-er clicks as possibly to actually download it.
Make the executable file available in as many formats as is possible. Some game engines
(like XNA) only allow windows, and this restricts your audience. Try to keep everything as
cross-platform as possible.
1.4 i)
The key element of terminating project is including:
- Technical reasons
- Requirements or specifications of the project result are not clear or unrealistic
- Requirements or specifications change fundamentally so that the underlying contract
cannot be changed accordingly
- Lack of project planning, especially risk management
- The intended result or product of the project becomes obsolete, is not any longer
needed
- Adequate human resources, tools, or material are not available
- The project profit becomes significantly lower than expected, due to too high project
cost or too low project revenue
- The parent organization does not longer exist
- The parent organization changes its strategy, and the project does not support the
new strategy
- Force majeure (e.g. earthquake, flooding, etc.)
- Necessary conditions disappear
- Lack of management support
- Lack of customer support
Whenever along the life cycle of a project it becomes clear that we have to terminate it,
there will be achievements we need to document. The least achievement is new knowledge
and experience about what does not work. We need to document this so that the
organization does not run into a similar situation again. Therefore, we emphasize again that
it is vital to run the regular project closure procedures for a project we have to terminate. As
such, adequate project termination marks successful project management.
ii)
Develop a lessons-learned report for this project
- The project give me the experience in controlling and managing the project. As an
assistant of project manager I feel that I have to keep learning from other to keep
myself always up-to-date from all the knowledge of project management
- Avoid the same old mistakes after doing this project
- Learning from project failures
- Paperwork and documentation are necessary for reporting purposes but when
making decisions, we should not placing too much on data which could be changed
within surprisingly
- Use modern technology an team tested management skills as my advantage
2.1
Organizational structure of the project:
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2.2 Discuss roles and responsibilities of participants within a project
1. Project manager
Peter Smith is the project manager who have the main responsibility for this project.
She will have to dealing with problem on the project. And she will have to optimize the
project to reduce time and save money.
2. Project Assistant
My duty is supporting Peter Smith (Project manager) for entire project work. This
role can be replace for project manger
Marketing
Marketing is the most important activity in a business because it has a direct effect
on profitability and sales. Larger businesses will dedicate specific staff and departments for
the purpose of marketing.
4. Game desinger
Game Designers devise what a game consists of and how it plays. They plan and
define all the elements of a game: its setting; structure; rules; story flow; characters; the
objects, props, vehicles, and devices available to the characters; interface design; and
modes of play. Once the game is devised, the Game Designer communicates this to the
rest of the development team who create the art assets and computer code that allow the
game to be played.
5. accountant
An accountant performs financial functions related to the collection, accuracy,
recording, analysis and presentation of a business, organization or company's financial
operations. The accountant usually has a variety of administrative roles within a company's
operations. In a smaller business, an accountant's role may consist of primarily financial
data collection, entry and report generation. Middle to larger sized companies may utilize
an accountant as an adviser and financial interpreter, who may present the company's
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financial data to people within and outside of the business. Generally, the accountant can
also deal with third parties, such as vendors, customers and financial institutions.
Project controls are the data gathering, management and analytical processes used
to predict, understand and constructively influence the time and cost outcomes of a
project or program; through the communication of information in formats that assist
effective management and decision making. This definition encompasses all stages
of a project or programs lifecycle from the initial estimating needed to size a
proposed project, through to reflective learning (lessons learned) and the forensic
analysis needed to understand the causes of failure (and develop claims).
Project strategy, undertaking planning and methods studies to help the PM optimise
future outcomes;
Scheduling including development, updating and maintenance;
Cost estimation, cost engineering/control and value engineering;
Risk management, including maintaining the risk register and risk
analysis/assessment;
Earned Value Management and Earned Schedule, including WBS, OBS and other
breakdown structures,
Document control;
Forensic Assessment for required diagnosis of schedule and cost
Supplier performance measurement / oversight (but excluding contract
administration);
The elements of a project management methodology that integrate these disciplines
both within the controls domain and with other project management functions;
Put simply, Project Controls encompass the people, processes and tools used to
plan, manage and mitigate cost and schedule issues and any risk events that may
impact a project. In other words, Project control is essentially equivalent to the
project management process stripped of its facilitating sub-processes for safety,
quality, organizational, behavioral, and communications management.
2.4
Below are the top 10 qualities in rank order, according to their frequency listed.
An effective project leader is often described as having a vision of where to go and the
ability to articulate it. Visionaries thrive on change and being able to draw new boundaries.
It was once said that a leader is someone who "lifts us up, gives us a reason for being and
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gives the vision and spirit to change." Visionary leaders enable people to feel they have a
real stake in the project. They empower people to experience the vision on their own.
According to Bennis "They offer people opportunities to create their own vision, to explore
what the vision will mean to their jobs and lives, and to envision their future as part of the
vision for the organization." (Bennis, 1997)
A Good Communicator
The ability to communicate with people at all levels is almost always named as the second
most important skill by project managers and team members. Project leadership calls for
clear communication about goals, responsibility, performance, expectations and feedback.
There is a great deal of value placed on openness and directness. The project leader is
also the team's link to the larger organization. The leader must have the ability to effectively
negotiate and use persuasion when necessary to ensure the success of the team and
project. Through effective communication, project leaders support individual and team
achievements by creating explicit guidelines for accomplishing results and for the career
advancement of team members.
Integrity
One of the most important things a project leader must remember is that his or her actions,
and not words, set the modus operandi for the team. Good leadership demands
commitment to, and demonstration of, ethical practices. Creating standards for ethical
behavior for oneself and living by these standards, as well as rewarding those who
exemplify these practices, are responsibilities of project leaders. Leadership motivated by
self-interest does not serve the well being of the team. Leadership based on integrity
represents nothing less than a set of values others share, behavior consistent with values
and dedication to honesty with self and team members. In other words the leader "walks
the talk" and in the process earns trust.
Enthusiasm
Plain and simple, we don't like leaders who are negative - they bring us down. We want
leaders with enthusiasm, with a bounce in their step, with a can-do attitude. We want to
believe that we are part of an invigorating journey - we want to feel alive. We tend to follow
people with a can-do attitude, not those who give us 200 reasons why something can't be
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done. Enthusiastic leaders are committed to their goals and express this commitment
through optimism. Leadership emerges as someone expresses such confident commitment
to a project that others want to share his or her optimistic expectations. Enthusiasm is
contagious and effective leaders know it.
Empathy
What is the difference between empathy and sympathy? Although the words are similar,
they are, in fact, mutually exclusive. According to Norman Paul, in sympathy the subject is
principally absorbed in his or her own feelings as they are projected into the object and has
little concern for the reality and validity of the object's special experience. Empathy, on the
other hand, presupposes the existence of the object as a separate individual, entitled to his
or her own feelings, ideas and emotional history (Paul, 1970). As one student so eloquently
put it, "It's nice when a project leader acknowledges that we all have a life outside of work."
Competence
Simply put, to enlist in another's cause, we must believe that that person knows what he or
she is doing. Leadership competence does not however necessarily refer to the project
leader's technical abilities in the core technology of the business. As project management
continues to be recognized as a field in and of itself, project leaders will be chosen based
on their ability to successfully lead others rather than on technical expertise, as in the past.
Having a winning track record is the surest way to be considered competent. Expertise in
leadership skills is another dimension in competence. The ability to challenge, inspire,
enable, model and encourage must be demonstrated if leaders are to be seen as capable
and competent.
Trust is an essential element in the relationship of a project leader and his or her team. You
demonstrate your trust in others through your actions - how much you check and control
their work, how much you delegate and how much you allow people to participate.
Individuals who are unable to trust other people often fail as leaders and forever remain
little more that micro-managers, or end up doing all of the work themselves. As one project
management student put it, "A good leader is a little lazy." An interesting perspective!
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Cool Under Pressure
In a perfect world, projects would be delivered on time, under budget and with no major
problems or obstacles to overcome. But we don't live in a perfect world - projects have
problems. A leader with a hardy attitude will take these problems in stride. When leaders
encounter a stressful event, they consider it interesting, they feel they can influence the
outcome and they see it as an opportunity. "Out of the uncertainty and chaos of change,
leaders rise up and articulate a new image of the future that pulls the project together."
(Bennis 1997) And remember - never let them see you sweat.
Team-Building Skills
A team builder can best be defined as a strong person who provides the substance that
holds the team together in common purpose toward the right objective. In order for a team
to progress from a group of strangers to a single cohesive unit, the leader must understand
the process and dynamics required for this transformation. He or she must also know the
appropriate leadership style to use during each stage of team development. The leader
must also have an understanding of the different team players styles and how to capitalize
on each at the proper time, for the problem at hand.
Although an effective leader is said to share problem-solving responsibilities with the team,
we expect our project leaders to have excellent problem-solving skills themselves. They
have a "fresh, creative response to here-and-now opportunities," and not much concern
with how others have performed them. (Kouzes 1987)
References:
Bennis, W., 1997. "Learning to Lead," Addison-Wesley,MA.
Kouzes, J. M: "The Leadership Challenge," Jossey-Bass Publishers, CA.
Norman: Parental Empathy. Parenthood, Little, Brown, NY.
2.5
Firstly, organizational - receiving recognition in their annual appraisal for the contribution to
the project. 2. Secondly, personally - with the development of their skills and competencies.
It defines each of the project roles, the skills needed, outlines areas of responsibility and
their contribution to the project reporting requirements, which are visually presented in a
project organizational chart. Before any detailed work can be conducted on the structure
and composition of the project team the manager needs to have a detailed description of
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project activities and their associated skills requirement. Once the project manager has this
information he or she is able to:
Identify staff with skills need for project roles.
Agree a timetable for acquisition and releases of the identified individuals to the project
team.
Identify & schedule necessary training for team members.
Isolate the best strategies to create a 'project team' from this disparate set of individuals.
Pinpoint compliance considerations related to the project and any safety issues.
Defined & gain agreement to a recognition procedure. A consistent and constant supply of
the key personnel especially those with a highly valued skills set is a continual issue for any
project manager.
Organization charts
Peter Smith is a person who has the overall responsibility for the successful initiation,
planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of a project.he control the
financial and other resources needed for a project and co-ordinate the work of the
production team, making sure that the quality and vision of the game is maintained,
whatever problems may arise. They understand everybodys contribution to a game and
keep an overview of the entire process from start to finish
For a construction project to meet time and cost objectives, the construction project manager
(Peter Smith ) and I must work as a team. An assistant construction manager works with his
seniors to oversee the daily management, coordination, supervision and successful
completion of projects.I will help him to controlling, planning, and manage the entire project.I
will works with a game's production staff to ensure the timely delivery of the highest quality
product possible. Typically, I will focus on specific areas of the development process. This
could involve handling the communications between the publisher and developer, or co-
ordinating work on some of the project's key processes such as managing the outsourcing
of art assets. Assistant Producers are employed by publishers as well as development
studios. Working within a development studio often involves managing communications
between different teams such as design, art and programming.In a publisher environment, I
will focus on liaising between sales and marketing departments and the developer, and
supporting the work of the publisher's External Producer
Game Designers devise what a game consists of and how it plays. They plan and define all
the elements of a game: its setting; structure; rules; story flow; characters; the objects,
props, vehicles, and devices available to the characters; interface design; and modes of
play. Once the game is devised, the Game Designer communicates this to the rest of the
development team who create the art assets and computer code that allow the game to be
played.Sometimes the Game Designer comes up with the games premise. More often,
most of the core ingredients are already defined and they must decide how to create the
best game using these elements, within a certain budget and timescale.Game Designers
are employed by development studios, both independent and publisher-owned. The game
design process is usually shared between a number of different people, overseen by a Lead
Designer.Game Designers should have a deep understanding of the capabilities and
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benefits of different hardware platforms (e.g. PC, console, mobile device, etc.), as well as
familiarity with software technologies and techniques appropriate to each platform.During
development, the Game Designer makes adjustments to the original specification for the
game to respond to technical constraints which have been identified and to incorporate new
programming and art creation methods developed by the team. They also train QA Testers
to play the game, making sure that they understand what is expected of the finished
product.
References
Book : Project Based Management ( writen by : J.Rodney Turner)
Wesite: http://www.projectcontrolsonline.com/
http://work.chron.com/
http://creativeskillset.org/
Check carefully the submission date and the instructions given with the
assignment. Late assignments will not be accepted.
Ensure that you give yourself enough time to complete the assignment by the
due date.
Do not leave things such as printing to the last minute excuses of this
nature will not be accepted for failure to hand-in the work on time.
You must take responsibility for managing your own time effectively.
If you are unable to hand in your assignment on time and have valid reasons
such as illness, you may apply (in writing) for an extension.
Failure to achieve a PASS grade will results in a REFERRAL grade being given.
Take great care that if you use other peoples work or ideas in your assignment,
you properly reference them in your text and any bibliography.
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NOTE: If you are caught plagiarizing, the University policies and
procedures will apply.
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Achievement Summary
LO 2
2.1 Identify the most appropriate organizational structure
D2: Take
M2: Select/design and
responsibility for
apply appropriate
managing and
methods/techniques
organising activities
Action Plan
Summative feedback
DATE : ...............................................................
VERIFIED BY : ................................................................
NAME : ................................................................