Anita Pickerden

Planning and Managing your Work

Based Project
A Guide For Students

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Project: A Guide For Students
1st edition
© 2015 Anita Pickerden & bookboon.com
ISBN 978-87-403-1044-3

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Contents

Contents

1 Introduction 8
1.1 The essential elements of a project 8
1.2 Learning from experience 9

2 Pre-Planning: What to do before you start your planning 11

2.1 Define and describe your project 11
2.2 Analyse the current situation and determine the objectives 12
2.3 Features and benefits of your project 14

3 Who should do what? Roles and responsibilities within the project team 15
3.1 What does the project manager do? 16
3.2 Selecting and inducting the team 18
3.3 Handling conflict 19

4 Stakeholder identification and analysis – What do people want from this project? 21

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Contents

5 Project organisation and general planning 23

5.1 The Business Case 24
5.2 The Project Initiation Document (PID) 24
5.3 Communications Strategy 26

6 Starting to Plan: Goals, Objectives and Tasks 27

6.1 Work breakdown structure 29
6.2 Gantt Charts 30

7 Risk Management: What can go wrong with your project? 32

8 Monitoring Progress 35
8.1 Problem Solving tools for Project Management 35
8.2 Managing changes to the project specification 37

9 At the end of the project 39

9.1 Post-project evaluation 39
9.2 Writing the Project Report 40

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 Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Contents

10 Test your understanding 45

11 Useful Links 46
11.2 The difference between a project and a programme 48

12 About Dr Anita Pickerden 50

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students

If you’re a business or management student, it’s likely that you will be asked to carry out a Work Based
Project as part of your course. This project will usually aim at solving a problem at work, or sometimes
in finding out information that will be helpful to your employer. So a basic knowledge of project
management tools and techniques will be very helpful, both for your current assignment and also for
future work projects.

Why bother to learn how to manage a project just for an assignment? Surely it is simply a matter of getting
on with it, and muddling through to the end? Well that is certainly how some projects are ‘managed’
but that is also why many projects go over budget, or fail in some other way. The good news is that
project management is a fairly straightforward process. If you follow the steps in the right order, you
will achieve your project, leaving everyone happy with the result. The most important aspect of project
management is the planning, and the more planning you do the more likely it is that you will succeed.

Some work based projects also involve working with a team of people, some of whom will be talented,
knowledgeable, co-operative and will remain working on the project form beginning to end (others may
be less so). This e-book helps you to identify the best people for the different roles within the project.
It also covers issues such as team members being re-deployed onto other activities, and conflict within
the project team.

You might need to find a team from within your workplace, or you might have to work with a number of
your fellow students from other organisations to develop a group project. That would allow you to share
good practice in your group, and to learn what other companies do. The ‘downside’ might be having to
present a group report at the end of the project, where you would not have total control over the contents
or the manner of presentation. In that case, your persuasion and negotiation skills will be needed!

Working through this e-book should help you to achieve the following:-

• make an effective contribution to the planning of a project;

• understand the role of project leader and of members of the project team;
• appreciate the constraints of specification, time and resources;
• create effective support groups;
• provide teamwork and support for managers of complex projects.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Introduction

1 Introduction
This e-book will help you to start planning your Work Based Project. You don’t need to be currently
managing any projects; you may simply be part of a project team, and want to understand all of the
component parts of a project. You may only be able to observe a project from the side-lines, but you
can still learn a lot by just watching. Before you start, please identify the project that you would like to
use as an example, then you can record each step of the e-book in your journal, and this will give you
an opportunity to plan a real project from its initiation through implementation and finally evaluation.

Your journal for reflection

You need a journal, to collect your notes and reflect upon your thoughts as you work through this e-book.
Your journal could be a physical notebook where you write your ideas, or the Notes pages on your
phone/tablet. Writing your thoughts and ideas will help you to use what you have learned to improve
how you manage this and later projects.

1.1 The essential elements of a project

What is a project? There are three essential elements to a project, which are not always present in an
ongoing programme: they are a budget, a specification and a time scale.

• The budget doesn’t necessarily mean money; the term covers all of the resources you will
need to get the project finished. So it might include the people in your project team, or the
IT equipment you will need, or the office space in which to meet. Some companies will have
a funding model that will identify the monetary cost of all of your resources. Others may
rely upon you to estimate the cost, while some may simply not provide any information
at all.
• The specification will describe what the project should look like when it’s finished. The size,
shape, colour or weight of an object, will all add to your clearly defined goal, such as ‘five people
will have undertaken health & safety training by the end of next month’. The final success of the
project may well depend on how clearly you have defined your specification, and on how well
everyone connected with the project (your stakeholders) all agree on the exact specification.
• The time scale may be short term, e.g. ‘by the end of next month’ or very long term, such as
‘within the next ten years’ but it must have some sort of end date. Consider the time limit
for the Millennium Dome, which had to open on New Year’s Eve 1999, or the staging of the
Olympic Games in 2012, when all the athletes had to get themselves into peak fitness for the
exact date of their race. These were lengthy projects but, because they had a definite end date,
it was possible to treat them as a project.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Introduction

In your journal, note down the resource needs, the time scale and the specification of your own project.
Then consider whether all of these are certain and agreed with your sponsor and your project team.

1.2 Learning from experience

Consider any previous projects that you have managed, or have been involved as a member of the project
team. Have any gone wrong? What happened? Why? If you can identify what went wrong, then you can
design your project plan to avoid those pitfalls. It may be that some of your own skills could do with a
little improvement, so use Kolb’s Learning Cycle to improve your project management skills.

David Kolb realised that we can learn from 4 steps; firstly we may take action or have an experience;
secondly that we can stand back and look at the results and reflect; thirdly we can wonder if there is a
reason for the result; and fourthly we can plan our next steps based on what we have observed.

By considering each step of the learning cycle in turn, you’ll be able to learn from your own or, better
still, from other people’s experiences, and improve your ability and confidence to manage a project. If
you’re not sure where in the cycle you learn best, then take a look at the Learning Styles Questionnaire
by Honey & Mumford (you can find details of the online questionnaire in Chapter 11). Keeping the
learning journal as you work through your project is always a good idea, and will help you to ensure
that you remember your successes as well as your challenges for your next project.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Introduction

Exercise

As you start working through this e-book, make sure that you have recorded in your journal
information about a real project that has just finished or that is in the planning stages to work
on as an example throughout this e-book: briefly describe that project here if you have not
already done so.

Some massive IT projects and major building projects have a tendency to over-run their time scales and
the budget, or they have been so drastically changed that the original goal is lost. The Sydney Opera
House is a good example. The original 1957 project plan called for the project to be finished in 5 years
at a cost of $7M. In the end, the project cost $110M and took 13 years and the specification was changed
so many times that it was almost unrecognizable from the original plans.

Of course, some projects do come in on time and on budget. An example of a project that came in on
time and on budget is the Library of Birmingham, which was opened in August 2013. The iconic building
was actually completed two weeks ahead of schedule and came in £4.2million under budget.

Another major project success was the restoration of St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. The chapel
was very badly damaged by fire in 1992 and the restoration took five years to complete, coming in on
time, on budget and to a very high specification.

Exercise:

Look at some current projects in your workplace or even some national projects to consider
if they are going well. If so, what do you think is helping that progress? Is it the team, or the
clear goal, or the lack of resistance?

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Pre-Planning: What to do before you start your planning

2 Pre-Planning: What to do before

you start your planning
The more information you can gain before you start planning your project, the more likely it is that
you will succeed. It’s very tempting to rush this part, and some project managers love to get the project
started and then worry about whether things will go smoothly. But if you resist that temptation and
spend some time finding out all about your project, and understand the expectations and the current
situation, then you will be able to plan your project properly and avoid many of the pitfalls.

2.1 Define and describe your project

Project Definition is a really important step – the more time you spend now to understand and define
your project, the less time you have to waste later in sorting out misunderstandings. If you are working
with a project team, bring them into your discussions early so that everyone can agree what the project
is aiming to achieve. And then, when you’ve defined exactly what the project is all about, try to describe
your project in a simple statement:

“This Project is about….”

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Pre-Planning: What to do before you start your planning

This way, if you are working on several projects, then each project folder can be labelled in a way that
you, and everyone else in the team, can use it to quickly refer to the right project. For example, “road
improvement project”, “new purchasing protocols project”, “review of staff uniforms project”, etc., etc.
If you can get into the habit of identifying the outcomes at this stage, your project will be much easier
to define.

Example:

One company that had lots of projects happening at the same time found it had a real problem in the
project office. There were five project managers and each was in charge of up to six projects. But when
clients rang in to check on progress no one knew what the others were working on. Then they learned
to give each project a simple title, and to put that project name on the project folder. That way, when
clients rang up it was easy to find out what was happening on any given project.

2.2 Analyse the current situation and determine the objectives

The more information you can collect about your proposed project before you start to plan the project,
the better prepared you will be. Consider previous projects that you were involved with or observed,
and ask yourself, what would you have liked to have known before you started? Were there any times
when you would have planned a project differently if you had known that the CEO was unhappy with
your plan, or that some new safety legislation was about to render your project impossible?

It is a fact that, in project management as in many other fields, “What you don’t know will hurt you”. So it
is absolutely vital that you gather as much information as you can before you start planning your project.

Exercise:

In your journal, complete the Situation Analysis exercise below. This will help you to make
sure that you have collected as much information as you need before you start your planning.
Work with your project team, if you have one. Be aware that completing this exercise may take
you some time, but it will help to prevent your project failing later.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Pre-Planning: What to do before you start your planning

Project Management Situation Analysis exercise

Ask yourself the following questions and, if you don’t know the answer, then find someone who does.
Remember that the more you find out at this stage of your project, the less likely it will be that your project fails.

1. Who is the client? Who is the beneficiary? Who is the Customer? i.e. who is going to be paying for this project,
and who will benefit?
There won’t always be a separate client, beneficiary and customer; they may all be one and the same.
But it is really important that the project team members all know who they are working for.

2. What has prompted this project?

Is this something you have noticed that needs improvement? Has there been a change of legislation that
requires new processes?

3. What sort of analysis or data collection is most suitable (Interview? Questionnaire? Observation?)
Discuss this with your project sponsor or tutor. The extent of your analysis will depend on the time and
money available, and whether your employer is supporting your project.

4. What strategies/visions already exist within my organisation/my department?

Try to make sure your project is in line with the company mission and values.
If your project doesn’t fit into the company’s strategic plan then you will have to do a lot of persuading to
gain acceptance.

5. What influence does the power structure have on the current situation?
Remember that power may not sit at the top of the organisation – be aware of who the gatekeepers are and
get to know them.

6. Is there a time constraint, and what extra resource is there to help?

For example, another project might have finished early and there is someone now free to assist you.

7. What committees or higher authorities are implicated in the fulfilment of this project?
For example, has your employer just announced a new policy where your project could benefit the company?
This will help you identify where your additional support might come from.

If your plan is to introduce an improvement in your workplace, then this Situation Analysis will help you
to understand how your project can fit into the wider company plans. Carol Costley, in her book Doing
Work Based Research, discusses the issues facing the ‘insider-researcher’ and explains how valuable it
can be to a company when one of its staff conducts a project that meets the company’s business needs.

If the purpose of your project is to research information that will be of use to your organisation, then
you may need to carry out a literature search, and to find out what other sources of information are
available to you. For example, if your employer is a retail organisation then there will be government
statistics as well as retail trade journals that may have the information you need.

You could start out by looking through your college or university library resources, or try searching
on Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.co.uk/) for relevant articles. There is a brief note on how to
reference your sources of information in Chapter 9, although your college or university will be able to
provide guidance as to their preferred referencing style.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Pre-Planning: What to do before you start your planning

2.3 Features and benefits of your project

If you have studied marketing strategy then you may remember that ‘features’ describe what the project
is about, and ‘benefits’ help people to understand what is really good, or really innovative, about your
project. Try to explain the benefits in a way that will meet the needs of the people who will be affected
by your project.

For example, “this project will take 25 people two weeks to complete and will cost £x to move the production
line” describes some of the features of the project.

However, “This project will enable you to access the production line without walking all around the factory,
it will only take two weeks, so the inconvenience will be minimal, and it will save you a lot of time and
effort,” describes the benefits of the project to the people involved.

In addition, “The increased productivity resulting from the time saving means we are all likely to earn a
bonus” will enthuse your team.

Exercise:

In your journal, list the benefits of your project. This helps in selling your project to your
sponsor and to the team members, and helps you to formulate the Business Case for the project,
so that you can help senior managers to justify any expense.

You may also find it useful to identify the advantages of the benefits to each of the people likely to be
affected by your project and this again will help you to promote your project.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Who should do what? Roles and
Project: A Guide For Students responsibilities within the project team

3 Who should do what? Roles

and responsibilities within the
project team
Is this project your idea, or have you been ‘delegated to’? If the project is your own idea then you may
need to persuade other people to get involved, or give you the authority to proceed. Your first job as
project manager would probably be to prepare a Business Case and make a formal presentation, so that
your boss can approve the project. We look at the Business Case in more detail in Chapter 5.

Usually, the person who gives you the project, or who gives permission to proceed to carry out the
project is called the project sponsor. This person can be invaluable in providing support and guidance,
as well as giving you access to additional resources. When you have your first meeting with the sponsor,
make sure you take the opportunity to clarify all of the variables of the project, together with aspects
of support, reporting requirements, and any other queries you may have. In some companies a project
manager will make sure that they have the sponsor’s written authority to carry out the project, (this is
useful in case of a later dispute or disagreement).

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Who should do what? Roles and
Project: A Guide For Students responsibilities within the project team

3.1 What does the project manager do?

Project managers make sure that they meet the client’s requirements, complete the project on time and
within budget, and check that everyone else is doing their job properly.

The Association for Project Management suggests that the role can often include

• planning what work needs to be done, when and who’s going to do it

• looking at the risks involved in a particular project and managing these risks
• making sure the work is done to the right standard
• training and motivating the team of people involved in the project
• co-ordinating work done by different people
• making sure the project is running on time and to budget
• dealing with changes to the project as and when necessary
• making sure the project delivers the expected outcomes and benefits
• some project managers also have specialist technical knowledge.

So what are the average Project Manager’s responsibilities?

• agreeing project objectives

• representing the client’s interest
• providing independent advice on the management of projects
• organising the various professional people working on a project
• risk assessment
• making sure that all the aims of the project are met
• making sure the quality standards are met
• using the latest IT to keep track of people and progress
• recruiting specialists and sub-contractors
• monitoring sub-contractors to ensure guidelines are maintained
• accounting, costing and billing

Key skills for project managers

Organization skills Analytical skills Numeracy / budgeting skills

Legal understanding Commercial awareness Communication: written, oral

Diplomacy Team building & team working Problem solving

Ability to motivate people Management skills Negotiation skills

Public speaking Sales and marketing skills Subject knowledge

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Who should do what? Roles and
Project: A Guide For Students responsibilities within the project team

The good news is that you as project manager do not need to be good at all of these; you can share the
roles within the project with the other team members and the project sponsor. If you have a reasonable
selection of people to choose from then you may wish to consider their personalities, as the person who
needs to ‘sell’ the project to the sponsor will need to be outgoing and engaging; whereas the person who
should be ensuring the project is properly completed will need to have an eye for detail.

You may have already come across the work of Dr Meredith Belbin, who researched team dynamics.
He suggested that certain roles are best suited to specific personality types, and that a successful team
needs a variety of different personalities in order to function well. Each personality type has its good
points and also some allowable weaknesses. Belbin’s team roles fall into three categories: People oriented;
Action or Task oriented; and Thinking or Cerebral roles.

People Oriented Roles Good points Weaknesses

Co-ordinator / Chair A confident delegator Offloads too much & manipulates
Team Worker Co-operative, good listener Indecisive, fears offending others
Resource Investigator Enthusiastic, Extrovert Quickly loses interest, over-optimistic
Action Oriented Roles
Completer / Finisher Conscientious, delivers on time Poor delegation , worrier
Implementer Reliable and disciplined Inflexible, slow to respond
Shaper Dynamic and challenging Impatient, poor people skills
Cerebral (thinking) Roles
Monitor Evaluator Clear judgment, eye for detail Uninspiring,
Plant Imaginative and creative problem solver Unrealistic, ignores practicalities
Specialist Dedicated and single minded Fails to see the big picture

Now consider the people in your team and try to work out how their strengths according to Belbin might
help you. This may give you a strong hint as to which tasks to give to which team members. Of course
you may be the only team member, and so you will have to perform all of these roles.

Exercise:

In your journal, spend some time considering your own strengths, and also the areas where
you might need some help.

Take a moment to consider your own strengths as a project leader:

1. -
2. -
3. -
4. -
5. -

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Who should do what? Roles and
Project: A Guide For Students responsibilities within the project team

What tasks and skills will you need support from your project team?

1. -
2. -
3. -
4. -
5. -

This exercise will help you to decide who should do what within your project team. So if you’re not
very comfortable with making presentations, then ask one of your team members to take on that task.

3.2 Selecting and inducting the team

When you start to work with your team, don’t expect everything to go smoothly at first. The team
members may all know each other but they may not have worked together on a project like this before.
They will probably need some time to settle down and work effectively together.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Who should do what? Roles and
Project: A Guide For Students responsibilities within the project team

Psychologist Bruce Tuckman looked at the way that teams developed, and coined his memorable phrase
“forming, storming, norming, and performing” in his 1965 article, “Developmental Sequence in Small
Groups.” He used it to describe the path that most teams take on their way to high performance. Later,
he added a fifth stage, “adjourning” describing the way that the team task has finished forming and has
settled into working well together.

You may also need to provide training for some of your team members. Therefore, at the first team
meeting you might wish to carry out a simple skills audit to find out who is good at what, and you can
distribute the tasks accordingly. The most important aspect will be a full team briefing so that your team
members know exactly what is expected from them and from the others.

3.3 Handling conflict

It is inevitable that, at some point, not everyone will agree either with the way you are managing the
project or with each other. People can fall out over the simplest things. Sometimes conflict can be a very
good thing, as it will enable people to express their concerns about the project. However, at other times
conflict can be destructive and can slow down the progress of the whole team, so you must be prepared
to step in early to resolve disputes.

If you are not used to dealing with conflict, the following steps may prove helpful:

a) Firstly, talk to the person or people involved, preferably in private.

b) Focus on specific behaviour and events, and avoid blaming personalities; so say something like
“when this happened…” rather than “when you said…”.
Describe the specific incident in detail, and avoid suggesting that “you always….” or
“you never…”.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Who should do what? Roles and
Project: A Guide For Students responsibilities within the project team

c) Allow the other person to explain their view of the situation, without interrupting or being
defensive. Ask questions if necessary to make sure you have understood all the facts.
Rephrase what they have said to check your understanding.
d) Summarise the points of agreement and disagreement, asking the other person if they agree
with your assessment, and agree which area of conflict is the priority to be resolved.
e) Then agree a collaborative plan to deal with that issue, and make sure that you keep
your promises.

If your team members make specific criticisms of you, or the way you’re leading the project, then you
must be prepared to listen to what they say.

• Try not to be defensive, as that will only discourage them from being honest with you in future.
Ask for specific examples so that you can fully understand what they are complaining about.
• Be honest with yourself – their criticism may be completely justified, and you will have to
change your behaviour or actions.
• Thank them for raising the issue – this will help them to feel confident that you will respond
to their concerns in future.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Stakeholder identification and analysis –
Project: A Guide For Students What do people want from this project?

4 Stakeholder identification and

analysis – What do people want
from this project?
A stakeholder is someone who is likely to be affected by your project. They may be responsible for giving
you the project in the first place, or they may simply be affected by some of the changes that your project
will bring about. So spend a little time making sure that you are aware of who all of your stakeholders
are, and then consider what they need from your project.

A detailed stakeholder analysis will enable you to assess the needs of each of the stakeholders, and make
sure that you include ways of meeting their needs in your project plan. When stakeholders feel that
their needs and concerns have at least been considered, they are much more likely to rate the project
as a success.

For example:-

Who Needs and Wants How to meet those needs

Chief Executive Good results but no adverse publicity Well managed project, with a detailed plan

Project initiator /sponsor Recognition for having a good idea and a Ensure that project reports record the
project that improves efficiency sponsor’s help and support

Beneficiaries / client Improved facilities at an affordable cost Clear analysis before the project starts to
show the improvements

Customers Clearer labelling of products, and logical Include these in your Key Performance
access to advice Indicators (“what will success look like?”)

Suppliers Clear instructions for delivery Prompt Include in the project plan
payment

Project team members Good information from the start, Build in regular team briefings in the plan,
clear communication throughout and and ensure recognition and thanks at
recognition for a job well done. the end.

Myself as project leader High performing team Plan some team training

Acknowledgement of my project Ensure good communication to project

management skills sponsor and CEO

Other stakeholders, e.g. Minimum disruption Good communication throughout

neighbours the project

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Planning and Managing your Work Based Stakeholder identification and analysis –
Project: A Guide For Students What do people want from this project?

Exercise:

In your journal, complete your own Stakeholder Analysis for your project, and decide how you
are going to meet the needs of your stakeholders through your project plan.

Remember, can’t please all of the people all of the time. You can try to take their needs on
board when you write up your plan.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Project organisation and general planning

5 Project organisation and

general planning
By now, you should be able to decide whether your project is feasible. However if you find that it simply
won’t work then that may not be fatal for your project assignment, as you’ll be able to discuss the issues in
your methodology and also in your evaluation. Hopefully, the initial meeting with your project sponsor
should have ironed out any problems, and we will assume from here that your project has passed the
feasibility test.

For those of you working in the public sector in the UK, you may have come across PRINCE2. This stands
for “Projects In a Controlled Environment” and is a very structured and systematic way of recording
progress for your project. If you are thinking of a career in managing public sector projects you may find
a PRINCE2 qualification is a pre-requisite for employment. In the US, the structure is often referred to
as the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), and again follows a very systematic process.

Remember your three variables are Time (start date and finish date), Budget (including all resources
such as people, rooms, computers) and Specification (you may call this the goal or aim of the project). At
the beginning of the project these three may feel fixed, but you will find that there is often some leeway
in one or other of the variables that you can exploit, and it is very useful to know from the start which
of the variables is non-negotiable.

Example:

Let’s say you are tasked with a clearly defined building project that must be completed within
6 months at a cost of £150,000. You might want to try to find out which is the most important,
so you could say “I know I can give you the building you want at the price you specify, but
it may take up to 8 months, would that be okay?” Their reply will indicate whether the time
limit is fixed or flexible.

Or you might try “I can certainly provide you with the building work in 6 months at the price
you suggest, but the quality of the finish may not be up to your specification, alternatively I
can offer you the specification but it will cost closer to £175,000.”

These questions, asked at the start of the project, will provide you with the information you
need about the priority of the client’s needs.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Project organisation and general planning

A further point to discuss with your sponsor at this time is “What will success look like?” so that you are
all agreed on what will be an acceptable outcome. Some people don’t want to take this step as it means
they will be judged against it later, but it is important for a well-run project to have some well-defined
Critical Success Factors in place. This question is also vital when you come to evaluating your project.
If you couldn’t agree on success factors at the start, then how can you claim you have been successful
at the end?

Given the fact that many projects overrun their budget, the question may well arise as to where to find
extra resources. You may find that there are other projects running in other departments or other areas
where you can share some of the resources. Agreeing to keep your sponsor informed of your progress
through regular updates can help in this regard, as they may have access to additional resources, or the
authority to reduce the specification.

5.1 The Business Case

The business case brings together all the information necessary to help your senior managers to decide
to approve your project. This decision will commit the company to following your project plan. If the
plan is successful, the company will know it can expect certain outcomes or benefits. The benefits and
outcomes could be economic, financial, social, or environmental. The business case should show that
the project will be good value for money and explain why the project needs to be done now.

Your Business Case should demonstrate to your company how your proposed project would link business
needs to corporate values and organisational objectives. It should also include an evaluation of the long-
term costs and benefits, and a description of the other objectives of, and success criteria for, the project
or programme. Include your identification of needs of key stakeholders, and your plans to review the
project at key stages. You may find it useful to set out a variety of options and discuss the likely outcomes
from each option, and then recommend your preferred option on the grounds of efficacy or cost. It can
be helpful to include the option of doing nothing, to show the risk of inaction to the organisation. The
Business Case will usually form part of your Project Initiation Document.

5.2 The Project Initiation Document (PID)

The Project initiation Document, or PID, is a term used in the PRINCE2 system and it represents your
plan of approach to running your project. It is basically a portfolio of all the documents such as your
terms of reference, your communications plan, your risk register, your Business Case, your Gantt chart,
your plan for evaluating the project, and your quality plan.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Project organisation and general planning

So the PID is effectively the “contract” for the project (between you as the project manager and the
project board.) It should set out, as a minimum:-

• What the project is aiming to achieve,

• Why it is important to achieve it,
• Who will be involved in managing the process and what are their responsibilities,
• When it will be started and completed, and
• How the project will be undertaken.

The PID brings together all the important information you need to start and run the project on a sound
basis. In large organisations the PID may need to be agreed and signed off by the business sponsors.
It defines all major aspects of a project and forms the basis for its management and the assessment of
overall success. The project initiation document builds upon the business case (if it exists) using the
information and analysis data produced during initiation activities.

Your Project Initiation Document would probably include: Project Goals; Scope; Project Organization;
Business Case; and Constraints

Exercise:

Draw up the Project Initiation Document for your project.

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5.3 Communications Strategy

A major reason for project failure is ineffective communication. It may sometimes be that people don’t
tell others in the project team about their concerns, or sometimes because those others won’t listen. You
may have read about the Challenger Shuttle disaster back in 1986; engineers were concerned about a
risk to the launch but the project managers simply ignored their concerns, thinking that it hadn’t gone
wrong in the past so wouldn’t go wrong in the future. The tragic result was an explosion shortly after
lift-off and the deaths of the seven crew members. So it is vital that as much information can be shared
and acted upon as possible.

Clearly, issues of commercial confidentiality must be permitted to influence your decisions, but as a
general rule, at the start of a project, tell as many people as possible, as much as possible, as early as
possible. Even when some people may not be involved until later in the life of your project, they will
appreciate the advance notice. They may even have useful information or advice to offer which may
help your planning.

Identify and brief all the interested parties.

Exercise:

As part of your communications strategy, ask yourself the following questions about each stage
of your project:

• Who are you going to tell?

• What are you going to tell them?
• When are you going to tell them?
• How – briefings, meetings, emails, reports, newsletters, etc.
• How often – weekly, monthly, when things go wrong, when it ends?

Remember that your communications tasks can be shared among the team; you don’t have to do it all.
Now you can begin to plan your project, and it doesn’t need lots of expensive software, a pencil and
paper will do, or even an excel spreadsheet.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Starting to Plan: Goals, Objectives and Tasks

6 Starting to Plan: Goals,

Objectives and Tasks
Goals

Firstly, make sure that you have clearly defined the project goals and then you can start to break them
down into objectives, and then break those down further into the component tasks. (Remember that
in your organisation goals may be referred to as aims or plans). Your goals will help you to define your
critical success factors, or Key Performance Indicators, so you can ask yourself “What will success look
like?”. At the end of the project you can check to see how close you have got to your goals.

What are the long-term goals of your project? See if you can get those into a couple of sentences, but
ensure that you include the date when the goals should be achieved, for example: “by next March we
will have merged the Sales and Marketing teams into one team, and moved them to the new building”.
You might say, “I will have completed the kitchen extension by November this year, with all cupboards
and white goods properly fitted”.

Exercise:

Write the goal (and the date) into your journal.

Objectives for the project.

These are the next layer down, and make the goal easier to achieve.

You can divide the goal into phased objectives (e.g. in the first 6 months, the second six months, etc.),
or into aspects of the project (e.g. communication, consultation, merger, move, evaluation). However
you divide your objectives, you should make them ‘SMART’

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Starting to Plan: Goals, Objectives and Tasks

Exercise:

In your journal, list the objectives and consider whether they meet the SMART criteria.

Some people also think that when your objectives are SMART, then your actions should be SHARP:

Simplicity – keep your actions simple. If you can’t explain your goal simply or remember it easily, then
it’s likely that you’ll struggle to achieve it.

How – can the goal be achieved – what’s the plan? What steps are you going to take to make your project
goal a reality?

Action – What actions are you taking to progress towards the goal? (This is the most important one)

Review – Are you making regular assessments of what you’re doing, how and why? Will you be able to
evaluate your project effectively?

Progress – Action should always be about getting closer to your goal. The purpose of action is to make
progress! So don’t just review, plan to progress.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Starting to Plan: Goals, Objectives and Tasks

Tasks

Then, for each objective, list the main tasks to be achieved, and the dates for completion. For each task
consider when it should start and finish, how long it will take, who will do it, how much it will cost,
what level of quality you require, how you will know when it is complete. This may be too much detail
for a very simple project, and you may need a very much more detailed task information sheet for an
extremely complex project.

6.1 Work breakdown structure

Work from your list of main tasks above, and brainstorm smaller tasks for each of those. Then group
them according to activities, locations or departments. The object is to create a diagram similar to a
‘family tree’ so that each major activity is sub divided. For example, if you have to plan an away day
for the staff, the highest level task will be ‘Away Day’, and below that may be sections for ‘Location’,
‘Refreshments’, ‘Speakers’, ‘Administration’, ‘Transport’. Beneath each of those will be a number of tasks,
which can then be sub-divided again.

Once you’re clear about the tasks that have to be performed so that you can achieve the project, then
you can start to work out which tasks have to be done first, which tasks can be performed at the same
time, and which have to be completed before the next task can begin. As you look at each task, ask
yourself how many people will you need? how much equipment? how many rooms, etc.? If your project
is quite complex, you might want to consider creating a task sheet for each task. Each sheet will contain
all of the details, the start and finish dates and times, people responsible, likely costs etc., as set out in
the previous example.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Starting to Plan: Goals, Objectives and Tasks

So, having started to create your WBS, now go back and check that the tasks are in order. This simple
network diagram suggests that, for a project with only 9 tasks, you can start tasks 1 and 2 of your project
at the same time, but both tasks must be completed before starting task 3.

Task 1
Task 3 Task 4 Task 5
Task 2 Task 6 Task 8 Task 9
Task 7

Exercise

Use your network of tasks to create a chart that shows what needs to be done and when.

6.2 Gantt Charts

Most project managers will use a Gantt chart. Henry Laurence Gantt (1861–1919) was a mechanical
engineer, management consultant and industry advisor. He developed Gantt charts as a visual tool to
show scheduled and actual progress of projects, and to make sure that all of the tasks were completed.
Accepted as a common-place project management tool today, it was quite a radical concept and an
innovation of world-wide importance in the 1920s. Gantt charts were first used on large construction
projects like the Hoover Dam, started in 1931.

There are lots of examples of Gantt charts online. The chart below uses the same 9-step project as
outlined in the network diagram above to show how the project will spread over 9 weeks. The little
diamond shapes indicate a milestone, so that you can get the team together and make sure you are all
ready to proceed to the next stage of the project. The milestone at the beginning of Week 8 may be the
final checkpoint before the project event happens at the end of Week 8, leaving Week 9 to carry out the
post-project evaluation.

Task\Week No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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Exercise:

In your journal, create a simple Gantt chart of your own project.

Ask yourself if you have left enough time to achieve all of the tasks.
Do you have enough people to help you to finish the project on time?
Have you left enough time to evaluate this project so that you can transfer your learning points
on to your next project?

If you’re not sure whether your project will fit into a rigid time-frame then you might want to start at
the end and work backwards. Although this sounds strange, it can give you a much clearer idea of what
needs to be done, by what date, and in what order. It will also help you to identify any ‘bottlenecks’ that
could disrupt the progress of your report. A great book to help you with this is The Goal by Eli Goldratt.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Risk Management: What can go wrong with your project?

7 Risk Management: What can go

wrong with your project?
There are many things that could go wrong, for example, the resources might not be sufficient, you might
go over your time deadline, or you might not be able to complete the project to the right level of quality.
Sometimes all three go wrong, and more besides.

Exercise:

In your journal, list 20 things that might go wrong with your project. (There is a very good
reason for asking you to list 20 things, and you will probably find the final five or six very difficult
to think about – but those are the very things that can really cause your project major problems.)

Once you have listed your 20 risks, complete the table below for each risk, you are asking
yourself the following questions:

• What might happen?

• Probability = how likely is it? High / Medium / Low
• What would be the impact on the project? H / M / L
• What can you do to prevent this happening?
• Contingency = what should you do if the worst does happen
• Cost / benefit of any preventative or contingency measures

You do not have to use a table like this, but you will probably find it helpful at first.

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If we assume that your project is to plan an Away Day for the staff then your risk analysis might include
some of the following:

Risk Probability Impact Measures Contingency Cost / benefit

(what may (High/Med/Low) on the project to prevent this – if the worst of preventative
happen) (H/M/L) happening does happen / contingency
measures
e.g. Flooding Medium/Low High Place activity upstairs Cancel event £500 insurance
(not worth it in
this case so just
accept the risk)
Speaker fails to Low High Remind speaker Ask manager to No cost, high
attend before event prepare benefit
Refreshments Medium Medium Be very clear with the Bring some Minimal expense
are poor (but will caterers on quality extra items just and probably
affect your and quantity. in case worth it.
feedback)
Key staff Medium/High High Get managers to Finish the event No financial
members might ensure that they stay. early. cost but could
leave early be damaging to
Offer incentives company morale.

On simple, short term projects, this level of risk analysis should be sufficient. If you are taking part in
a much more complex or longer-term project then you might also want to consider whether the risk is
likely to happen immediately (and take action now) or much further into the future.

Now revisit your Gantt chart: What can you do to protect your project? Include your preventative and
contingency measures in the Gantt chart to ensure that you have many of your risks already covered.
When you get more familiar with managing projects you’ll probably be starting your risk analysis as
you list the tasks.

If your risk analysis shows a lot of probable, high impact risks, then you might also want to work out
what might happen if several things went wrong at once. For some projects the action would then be
to close the project down.

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During the Implementation phase of your project, keep paying attention to the Gantt chart and to all of
your Communication issues, such as

• How to communicate information on this project:

• Who to communicate with:
• What to communicate:
• When to communicate:
• How often to communicate:
• What has been the most effective method of communication so far?

Keep a record showing what you have done, and when you achieved it. If you have kept detailed task
sheets then this will be an easy job, but a daily note will record your progress and help you with your
project evaluation at the end.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Monitoring Progress

8 Monitoring Progress
Use the Gantt chart to show your progress. This would highlight that, at the end of July, task 5 is still
outstanding and may affect the end date of your project. You would now be able to take immediate
action to correct the problem.

Task\date Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

If your project is going according to plan, then be sure to let people know. If it starts to go off track or
over budget, then make sure that you consult the project sponsor, who may be able to find you extra
resources, or additional support. Monitoring your project also helps you to check if you are moving
towards the success that you identified at the start.

8.1 Problem Solving tools for Project Management

As we noted above, one of the challenges with managing even a simple project is that things will go
wrong, even when you have conducted a thorough risk analysis. So it’s always useful to have a variety
of different problem solving tools, because not every problem will need the same approach.

Take a simple problem and see which of these works best.

(a) This problem-solving model is frequently used by manufacturers if something has gone wrong:

Step 1 Is there a simple solution?

If so, just go ahead and solve it.
Step 2 Define the problem.
Draw it. Write about it. Ask What, When, Where, Why, Who & How
Step 3 Define the root causes of the problem.
Use the Ishikawa fishbone diagram; People, Process, Materials, Machines
Ask why five times to get to the root of the problem.

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Step 4 Protect the customer/client/team while you are solving the problem.
Are there temporary measures that might help?
Step 5 Is resolution of the problem within your scope?
If yes, solve it, monitor it, and write it up –
If no, then who can help you?

(b) The GROW model was originally developed in the 1980s by performance coach Sir John Whitmore,
although other coaches, such as Alan Fine and Graham Alexander, have also helped to develop it. This
model is often used when coaching people:

GROW: Are the project Goals clear? (what would success look like?)
What is the Reality vs the goals? (how close are we?)
What are the Options to close the gap? (how can we get there?)
How Will you close the gap? (Do we really want to get there?)

It helps to raise awareness of the problem and to create personal responsibility among the team.

(c) Solving performance problems

Get a group together and discuss each question in turn, providing as much detail as you can to answer
each question.

1. What exactly is the problem?

2. Who is involved? (list all of the people who are causing or are affected by the behaviour)
3. What are they doing? (again, be very specific)
4. What should they be doing? (itemise each action and behaviour that you expect)
5. What if we do nothing? (sometimes a problem will resolve itself, other times things will
get worse)
6. Brainstorm all the options (let everyone suggest options, no matter how far-fetched at first)
7. Choose the optimum, and watch closely.

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(d) IDEAL

This is another way of making sure that everyone understands the problem.

I Identify: (ask lots of questions to make sure you are trying to solve the right problem)
D Define: (be very clear. Break down complex problems into chunks. The way you define
the problem may affect the answer)
E Explore: (try several different strategies. Find an easy example and work up to harder
problems. Protect the outcome by working backwards from the solution)
A Act: (rehearse the solutions. Try a dummy run or role-play)
L Learn: (Study the effects – redefine your strategy if necessary)

8.2 Managing changes to the project specification

While some projects stay completely on track and never deviate from the original plan, many more
experience changes throughout the life of the project. Some of the changes might be unexpected, and
others might have appeared in your risk register. You might experience changes in funding, or your client
may have changed their requirements, or some of your project team may have been moved to another
project. These changes need to be managed so that the project will succeed in the end.

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Exercise:

Ask yourself what sort of changes might influence your own project

• What issues are likely to result in the need for change in your project?
• Which of these relate to your risk assessment?
• How will you record these changes in your project documentation?

One of the most important requirements when dealing with any changes to the project, is that you must
record the change in your project documents, and then make sure that everyone involved has the up to
date documents from which to work. This is called ‘document control’, and is vital to the success of your
project. If your project is large or complex, you might want to draw up a document control procedure.
Otherwise, the following suggestions will help you to keep control of your documents.

• Approve all project documents before you distribute them. This applies whether you are
distributing hard or electronic copies.
• Provide the correct version of documents at points of use. You might want to insist that everyone
in the team accesses the documents from a folder on Google Docs or Dropbox, so that you
can make sure all the documents are up to date
• Review and re-approve documents whenever you update them.
• Specify the current revision status of your documents.
• Monitor documents that come from external sources.
• Prevent the accidental use of obsolete documents.
• Preserve the usability of your quality documents.

Exercise:

Imagine that a change has taken place in your project, for example that the completion date
has been brought forward by three weeks, or your budget has been cut by 50%.

Take a look at your project documents and see how you must amend them to reflect the change,
and then note down all of the people who need to see the new documents.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students At the end of the project

9 At the end of the project

Closure

Say thank you!

Remember that your team members will deserve some recognition for their contribution to the success
of your project. And of course, if you claim all of the credit for yourself, they might be less willing to
assist you in your next project.

Publicise your results

You can refer back to your communications strategy to see what you planned to do at this point.
Perhaps you had agreed to issue a final newsletter with photographs of the finished project, or hold a
public meeting or celebration. Even if your project was not 100% successful, you can still publicise the
successes that you did have (and remember that very few projects were entirely successful, coming in
on time and within budget).

Assuring Experience

There is no point in ‘re-inventing the wheel’ every time you start a new project; much better to make
sure that you can incorporate your learning into the next project.

Ask yourself: What did we learn from this? Where can I store that learning for easy retrieval?
Some organisations will keep that information on their intranet, or in hard copy in a library, or you
might want to keep a copy of all your learning points for your own use.

Feedback

Find out from the team members, and other key players, how you can improve your project management
techniques next time.
Make sure you seek feedback on the task (did we achieve the project goals?) and also the process (how
well did I manage this project and what could I improve?).

9.1 Post-project evaluation

Hard or Soft Outcomes?

The hard outcomes are the concrete results that you identified as critical success factors at the start of
your project. You can ask whether you have achieved all of the things you set out to achieve or maybe
you are only 80% successful. Soft outcomes relate more to the skills and attitudes of the project team
members, such as increased confidence, improved public speaking skills, or better team working. You’ll
probably want to interview the team members or give them a questionnaire to identify these measures.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students At the end of the project

ASK: What went well, and why?

What went badly, and why?
So, next time, I will…

It is important when using this method to ask why things have gone well or badly, so that you can identify
the aspects to keep and those to change in your next project.

SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

You have probably seen a SWOT analysis used to plan activities, but it can also be very useful to evaluation
afterwards. In this case, your analysis would consider

S What were the Strengths of the project?

+ what were my strengths as a project manager/team member

W What were the Weaknesses of the project?

+ what were my weaknesses as a project manager/team member

O What Opportunities has the project created?

That includes opportunities for the project, your organisation, and for yourself

T What Threatened the success of the project?

For example, there may have been changes in personnel or finance.

Whichever system of evaluation you decide to use, do start with the positive; what went well. If you
begin to list all of the weaknesses and mistakes, then you may be too depressed to look at the successes.

9.2 Writing the Project Report

Contents: What should the Report contain?

Your tutor may have a preferred style for your report but, if not, then this could be an effective way to
present your project report:

Title page

Contents page

Introduction – introduce the report by setting out what this project is about, together with a little
background information on your organisation.

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Rationale… What the project aims to achieve, and the problem that you’re seeking to address (What) and
why you decided on this type of project (Why). You can include your situation analysis to demonstrate
the need for the project, and how the various stakeholders will benefit from a successful project (Who).

Literature Review – what papers, reports, articles and books you have read that gave you your
background knowledge.

Methodology (How) what you intend to do and also (if different) what you did in order to carry out
the project; this might be research, questionnaires, interviews etc. Include your stakeholder analysis
identifying the various needs of the individuals affected by your project, also your task list and Gantt
Chart to demonstrate your planning ability. Include your risk assessment and explain how you intend
to evaluate your project during its lifetime and at the end.

Results/findings/analysis – what you found out, and then the implications of your findings.

Discussion and Recommendations this could include your proposals for improvements, but will also
include your evaluation of the project.

References/Bibliography (make sure you acknowledge all your sources of information).

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You might also be required to include a personal evaluation showing what you have learned from
conducting this project, what new skills you have acquired, and what you will do differently next time
you carry out a project.

Confidentiality

Do you want to show this report to your employer? If you’re likely to have to share this report with your
employer as well as your course tutor, then remember to be diplomatic if you recommend improvements
to a process or system of working. You may not know whether that process was introduced by your
manager and any destructive criticism may not be well received! So try an approach along the lines of
“this is good, and here are ways of making it even better”.

The other important aspect of confidentiality is the need to respect the anonymity of people who have
answered your questions, responded to your surveys, or given you an interview. If you tell people that
their answers are going to be confidential then you should refer to them only by a code, for example
A1 and A2.

Referencing

At the end of your report, you will need to acknowledge your sources of information, whether they were
academic books and articles or official reports and statistics. Most college and universities will have their
own preferred style of referencing, usually based on the Harvard referencing system. Do take the time
to make sure that your references conform to your college-preferred style.

Robert Edds, writing on www.studentbeans.com, produced this rather irreverent but very simple guide
to Harvard Referencing:

Harvard Referencing: The rules

Essentially it works like this – whenever you reference someone else’s work you put their
name in brackets in the text itself, and then at the end of the essay you list all the work you’ve
referenced in full in the ‘References section’.

When you reference work from a specific page in a book you include the author’s name, the
year of publication, and the page number.

For example… “It has been claimed that reading studentbeans.com can make you wet yourself
(Edds 2012, p. 73).”

If you want to mention the author’s name as part of the sentence simply put the year and page
number in the brackets after their name.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students At the end of the project

For example… “Edds (2012, p. 108) found that there was no end to how pissed off students
get about incorrect use of grammar.”

If the book was written by two authors then just name both of them, with an ‘and’ in
between them.

For example… “Edds and Jones-Morris (2012, p. 321) discovered that stories about cats will
always be popular.”

If the book was written by three or more authors, name the first and signify the rest with ‘et al.’.

For example… “studentbeans.com is the greatest website in the world, ever, and all the others
should just give up (Edds et al., 2012, p. 23).”

Harvard referencing works exactly the same for journals as it does for books, though naming
the page number is not necessary. If several papers were published by an author in one year,
differentiate them using lower case letters.

For instance the first journal they wrote that year would be called (Edds 2012a), the second
would be (Edds 2012b), and so on.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students At the end of the project

Harvard referencing: The reference list

Rather than a bibliography, which can include sources that aren’t directly referred to within
your essay, Harvard referencing lists all the source material in a comprehensive ‘Reference’
list at the end.

When you reference in full you need to start with the author’s surname (listed in alphabetical
order), followed by their initial(s), the year of publication, the title of the book (in italics), the
city of publication, and then the name of the publisher itself.

For example… Callwood, J. (2007). Why the editorial department is so good looking. London:
Beans publishing.

When two or more authors wrote the book, do the same as above but listing all their names.

For example… Dalton, H., Davis, O. and Winlow, A. (1992a) How did the editorial department
get so funny? Birmingham: I Need A Drink Publishing House.

When including a reference of a journal, do the same as above, but rather than the city and
publishing house, just name the journal and issue number.

For example… Brann, O., Edds, R. and Jones-Morris, R. (2011) How we got so good. Science 836.

And finally, when citing a newspaper article do the same, but include the exact date of
publication, the name of the article, and the name of the newspaper.

For example… Edds, R. (September 21, 2012) “I can’t think of any more office-based jokes”,
The Guardian.

So, there you have it. It’s not so bad, right? And if you’re still a little confused, the best way
of getting your head around it is to practice, practice, practice. The sooner you get the hang
of it the sooner you can stop worrying about it, and just focus on the easy stuff like actually
writing the essay…

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Test your understanding

10 Test your understanding

The best way to see if you have learned how to manage a project is….to manage a project. So select a
small and hopefully simple project, and work through the various steps to plan and carry out your project.

If you are submitting a Work Based Project for assessment as part of your course, then your assignment
might look something like this:

Plan, conduct and evaluate a work based project, producing a report of 4000 (or 5000) words
or equivalent.

To do this you need to gain tutor and workplace prior approval for the topic and methodology
of the project, which can (a) improve the knowledge base of your workplace through systematic
enquiry, or (b) implement recommendations for improvements based on analysis, or (c) both.

Your project report should include a rationale for your topic choice, an evaluation of current
literature on the subject, an appropriate methodology, findings and recommendations
appropriate to your workplace, and an evaluation of the project process and its impact.

Your tutors will be looking for evidence that you understand the various tools and techniques available
to a project manager, and that you have used these appropriately.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Useful Links

11 Useful Links
Websites:

www.apm.org.uk
www.businessballs.com
www.maxwideman.com
www.mindtools.com
www.projectsmart.co.uk
www.pmi.org
www.tompeters.com

Useful articles / books

Andersen ES, Grude KV & Haug T (2004) Goal directed project management; effective techniques and
strategies, 3rd edn. Kogan Page.

Buttrick R (2005) The project workout: a toolkit for reaping the rewards from all your business projects, 3rd
edn. Financial Times Prentice Hall.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Useful Links

Callahan KR & Brooks LM (2004) Essentials of strategic project management, John Wiley.

Cobb AT (2006) Leading project teams: an introduction to the basics of project management and project
team leadership, Sage.

Costley C, Elliott G & Gibbs P (2010) Doing Work Based Research: Approaches to Enquiry for Insider
Researchers, Sage.

Graham RJ & Englund RL (2004) Creating an environment for successful projects, 2nd edn. Jossey Bass.

Goldratt EM The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement,3rd Revised Edition, North river Press.

Goldratt EM Critical Chain (1997) North River Press.

Harrison F & Lock D (2004) Advanced project management; a structured approach, 4th edn, Gower.

Office of Government Commerce (2005) Managing successful projects with PRINCE2, TSO.

Phillips D & O’Brian R (2004) It sounded good when we started: a project managers guide to working
with people on projects. John Wiley.

Teams: Bruce Tuckman, 1965 article, “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups.”

Difference between a project and a programme:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31978/10-1256-
guidelines-for-programme-management.pdf

http://www.independent-consulting-bootcamp.com/difference-between-a-project-and-a-program.html

http://www.projectmanager.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-project-and-a-program.php

Honey & Mumford Learning styles:

http://www.peterhoney.com/content/LearningStylesQuestionnaire.html

Information on the Challenger Shuttle Disaster:

http://www.history.com/topics/challenger-disaster

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students Useful Links

11.2 The difference between a project and a programme

Is there a difference between a project and a programme?

While this seems to be a very simple question, the answer is hotly contested. Some people would say that
a project is simply a small part of a larger programme, and others will insist that a project of whatever size
always has a definite end whereas a programme is an ongoing piece of work. The question is important
because everyone involved in your project should have a shared understanding of what they are doing,
and what they are working towards.

According to the Department of Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) in the UK government, it all depends
on the size and importance of the activity:-

What is a programme, and how does a programme differ from a project?

The ultimate goal of a Programme is to realise outcomes and benefits of strategic relevance.

To achieve this a programme is designed as a temporary flexible organisation structure created

to coordinate, direct and oversee the implementation of a set of related projects and activities
in order to deliver outcomes and benefits related to the organisation’s strategic objectives.

A programme is likely to have a life that spans several years. A Project is usually of shorter
duration (a few months perhaps) and will be focussed on the creation of a set of deliverables
within agreed cost, time and quality parameters.

The term Portfolio is used to describe the total set of programmes and stand-alone projects
undertaken by an organisation.

Programmes usually require the commitment and active involvement of more than one
organisation to achieve the desired outcomes.

Programmes deliver, or enable, one or more benefits i.e. measurable improvement resulting
from an outcome and perceived as an advantage by one or more stakeholders.

This definition will be widely accepted within large public sector organisations, and so long as everyone
involved is working to the same criteria then there will be no confusion. But you may already feel that
this does not reflect your own experience, particularly if you do not work within the public sector.

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Project: A Guide For Students Useful Links

The on-line resource of Independent Consulting Bootcamp takes a slightly different view, suggesting
that a project is a temporary entity established to deliver specific (often tangible) outputs in line with
predefined time, cost and quality constraints. A programme, on the other hand, is defined as a portfolio
comprised of multiple projects that are managed and coordinated as one unit with the objective of
achieving (often intangible) outcomes and benefits for the organization. They offer the following table
to explain their point of view:

Project Program

Outcomes – often intangible; difficult to

Outputs – tangible; relatively easy quantify; benefits often based on changes
Objectives to describe, define and measure; to organizational culture and behaviours;
tending towards objective. introducing new capabilities into the
organization; tending towards subjective.

Strictly limited; tightly defined; not

Not tightly defined or bounded; likely to
Scope likely to be subject to material change
change during the life cycle of the program.
during the life of the project.

Relatively short term; typically Relatively long term typically

Duration
three to six months. eighteen months to three years.

Program risk is more complex and potentially

Project risk is relatively easy to identify
the impact on the organization if a risk
and manage. The project failure would
Risk profile materializes will be greater relative to project
result in relatively limited impact on the
risk. Programme failure could result in material
organization relative to program risk.
financial, reputational or operational loss.

Ill-defined; often disagreement between

Nature of the
Clearly defined. key stakeholders on the nature and
problem
definition of the problem.

A significant number of potential solutions

Nature of the A relatively limited number
with often with disagreement between
solution of potential solutions.
stakeholders as to the preferred solution.

A significant number of diverse

stakeholders; probable disagreement
Stakeholders A relatively limited number of stakeholders.
between them as to the definition of
the problem & the preferred solution.

Environment is dynamic; and programme

Relationship to Environment within which the project takes objectives need to be managed in the
environment place is understood and relatively stable. context of the changing environment
within which the organization operates.

Resources to deliver the project can be Resources are constrained and limited; there is
Resources
reasonably estimated in advance. competition for resources between projects.

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Planning and Managing your Work Based
Project: A Guide For Students About Dr Anita Pickerden

12 About Dr Anita Pickerden

I have taught project management for over 20 years to individuals and teams in the public, private and
voluntary sectors. Some projects are small and simple, and others may be very complex, such as moving
a call centre from one side of the country to the other without losing service. However, I believe they all
start the same way; with a good idea, collecting information, and careful planning. Many of my students
have had to plan and manage a work based project and I wanted to help students to understand the basics.

Training in Project Management Skills

Whether your people need a quick two-day refresher in the basics of managing a project, or a formal
qualification such as the CMI Diploma in Project & Programme Management, I deliver practical, relevant
training that covers the tools and techniques as well as the soft skills of negotiation and persuasion.

My training covers all essential aspects of managing projects and uses your own project as an example
throughout. Working with a project team for a short period, I can ensure that their planning and
communication will show substantial improvement. I also lead the Project Management School for the
Marshall Gurney Institute, which provides online learning programmes.

Coaching to improve Project Management

When you have just one or two managers requiring development, coaching may be a cost effective way
of improving their project skills and performance. I am a qualified and experienced coach, and can help
your managers achieve levels of performance that meet your needs.

Project Evaluation

In theory, all projects should be evaluated, but in busy periods, this is often the stage that is overlooked.
A variety of evaluation methods are available, from evaluation of hard and soft indicators up to a full
scale ROI evaluation identifying to the penny what returns you are getting from your project. Qualified
with the ROI Institute, I can help you plan evaluation into your project plan from the start, then assist
with the analysis of data and reporting of findings.

www.anitapickerden.co.uk
[email protected]

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