Business Project Management

{Name of Student}

{Name of Institution}
Contents
Business Project Management.........................................................................................................1

.......................................................................................................2

Introduction......................................................................................................................................4

P1 Stages of the project life cycle for a selected project.............................................................4

1. Project Initiation..................................................................................................................4

2. Project Planning...................................................................................................................5

3. Project Execution.................................................................................................................5

4. Project Monitoring and Control...........................................................................................5

5. Project Closure.....................................................................................................................6

P2 Needs and expectations of all stakeholders involved in a selected project............................6

P3 Project plan to include objectives, milestones and individual contributions..........................6

P4 Two different methods for monitoring project progress........................................................6

P5 Deal with two problems which might impacton progress for a selected project....................6

P6 Design a suitable reporting method to review outcomes for a given project.........................6

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Introduction
At the beginning of a project, the required work seems to be enormous. There will be lots of
tasks that would be needed to complete within certain time and in a specific manner. Project
managers having some experience know that dividing the project into sub-phases and taking
suitable measures makes it easier to control it. Splitting the management efforts of a project into
5 stages can simplify and structure the efforts into a sequence of manageable and logical
measures. The manager of a project plays an important role in the success of the project. A
project manager has the duty to allocate the tasks to the workers for accomplishment and provide
all cautions to the workers for working in accordance to the goals of the project. During the
course of the project, there are so many things to be learnt by the manager in order to improve
his performance for the firm and provide formal cautions to his underlings and executives. For
finishing a project, project resource, project scope, project risk, communication medium,
challenges and project time are needed to be considered by the manager to be skilled and
competitive for completing the project.

P1 Stages of the project life cycle for a selected project

The organisation chosen for carrying out a project is Industrial Application Software (IAS)
Company situated in Dubai.

1. Project Initiation
A typical project’s first phase in the lifecycle of a project is project initiation. The significance
and analysis of a project is measured in this phase. Usually two types of tools are used for
evaluation of a project by the project managers.
Business Case Document – The need for the project is justified for the project, and estimation
of possible economic benefits are included in business case document.

 Feasibility Study – The assessment of the goals of a project, scheduling and

expenditures to determine for the implementation of a project. The needs of the project is
 levelled with the available resources for chasing the project. Practically unfeasible and
loss-making projects are abandoned. Nonetheless, by passing these two phases the project
is assigned to a project team.

2. Project Planning
When the project successfully go through the two tests a solid plan is required to guide the team
and the making sure that project should be done in time and on budget. A well-composed project
plan provides guidance for tracking down resources, obtaining investment and acquiring
essential materials. To produce quality results, manage risks, communicate assistance to the
shareholders and manage providers, the pathway for doing all these activities is provided by the
project plan.

The team is prepared for the difficulties and complexities that could occur during the project by
the project plan and aids them to know the cost, schedule, and scope of the project.

3. Project Execution
The most ordinarily associated phase with project management is project execution. It deals with
the outputs that should be made qualitative according to the expectations of the customer to
satisfy them. This could be made possible with the help of a team leader who allocates the
resources and the team members are kept focused on the tasks that are assigned to them. This
phase deeply depends on the planning phase. While executing the plan, all the work and efforts
are inherited from the project plan.

4. Project Monitoring and Control

Usually the monitoring and controlling occur simultaneously that is why they are combined with
the execution sometimes. During the course of execution the team must continuously examine
their own work progress. Prevention of the increase in the requirements by the team to guarantee
the delivery of the promised supplies only, for that purpose prevention of the scope creep by the
team must be monitored, computing the main indicators of the performance and tracking changes
from assigned price and time. For keeping project to move forward efficiently this continuous
vigilance is needed.
5. Project Closure
The situation where the deliverables are delivered and the project is finished the project is then
closed by the team, the stakeholder are informed regarding completion of the project and the
resources are released to be utilised in the other various projects. The evaluation and
documentation of the project is performed in this essential step of the project lifecycle and the
team gets moved on to the next project, utilising the previous experience, stronger procedures
and more progressive teams are built. However, sometimes the project management seems to be
an enormous process, but when it is broken down into these varied phases the teams are able to
carry out the most sophisticated projects and the time and resources are used more cleverly.

P2 Needs and expectations of all stakeholders involved in a selected project

Stakeholders are categorised into two types i.e. internal and external stakeholders. They are
either influenced by the business or by themselves part of the business. Some of them these
stakeholders are inside the firm and some of them are outside the firm, operating for the
company. The two types of stakeholders are discussed below:

Internal stakeholders:
Internal stakeholders lie within the organisation and have a bestowed interest in the progress of
the firm. It will generally be a person who is focused with the firm to provide proposed outcomes
and to meet its economic goals.

Directors: They are the may be administrative or non-administrative ones. They have the duty of
looking after for the benefits of the shareholders as they are appointed by them.
Shareholders: The own the public or private limited companies and appoint directors to run the
companies.
Managers: The manager include the will include the decision-making directors. In situation
where they run the company they are known as the managers. They are liable to plan and direct
the activities of a team of persons and observing their work progress.
Worker: They are the workforce who performs the low level operations to earn revenue for the
company.
External stakeholder
External stakeholders lie outside the business and work for the progress of an organisation.
External stakeholder is a person who generally works for and worry about the outcomes and
achieving economic goals of the firm.

Central government: The government is supplied a good share in income of the firms. The
decisions of the government can be influenced, however, particularly if they are big and
influential.

Locality: The income and job opportunities are created for the community by the firms. Workers
expend in shops etc. hence more jobs are created. So the same income does the multiplication of
jobs. Possible conflict of interest can be caused when the pollution and other problems are
caused by them.

Local government: Firms comprises some of the part of the locality. The income is supplied to
the local government and services are required in turn.

P3 Project plan to include objectives, milestones and individual contributions

Gantt chart

They are popular means of communicating project information as they are easily understood
across the business world. A Gantt chart is a useful tool for small projects that fit in a single
sheet or screen. For longer, more complex projects, Gantt charts may prove inconvenient for
computer display.

Gantt charts deal mainly with schedule management, they do not show the size of the
project or work elements involved. Providing a lot of information may end up in a confusing,
incomprehensible chart. There may be some difficulty in reading a Gantt chart of a large project
as the horizontal bars of the chart have a fixed height. Time –phased requirements of a project
may be misread.

Project Managers use Gantt charts to show tasks against time. A list of activities is recorded on
the left of the chart and along the top an appropriate time. Every activity is represented by a bar,
it’s the length and the position shows the beginning, the duration, and the finish of the activity.
Therefore, making it easy to observe the progress of various activities, how much time they
require to be completed, their dependency, from start to end of the project. In general, a Gantt
charts allows you to monitor what is required to be done in a project and the times that its phase
of the project has to be completed.

Pert Chart
Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) charts A PERT chart is a project management
tool that provides a graphical representation of a project’s timeline for breaking down the
individual tasks of a project for analysis.

A PERT chart shows each task in a project as a node. Dependencies between tasks (e.g. where
one task requires another one to be completed before it can start) are clearly shown by
interconnections between the task nodes. It also shows timing information for each task that is
similar to the critical path method (CPM) which identifies the longest path through the project,
and therefore the minimum time for the project to be completed.

Purpose of PERT Charts

Project managers can use PERT charts to:

 Set a realistic timetable for project completion

  Make sure focus is maintained on the most critical tasks for the critical path — since the
path leads to the minimum time the project requires, any delays to these tasks will result
in a delay to the overall project

 Identify tasks that need to be shortened if the overall project time needs to be reduced

 Identify tasks that can be carried out simultaneously

 Identify slack time where certain tasks are not as time-critical to the overall deadline.

P4 Two different methods for monitoring project progress

P5 Deal with two problems which might impact on progress for a project

The outcome of the project is highly influenced by the decisions, in case the project completion
is delayed or the costs of the project are increased, usually client is involved. The final decision
of developing alternative solutions and analysis that makes them cost-beneficial is preferred by
some clients with the project executive. While some clients would like to be involved in the
discussions to better comprehend the hurdles, develop alternative way outs and to make the
decisions in team atmosphere. The preference of making the decision of client and developing
alternatives and procedures that upkeep the first choice of the client, is significant to meet the
expectations of the client.
Inform Client of Difficult Issues Early

Project managers typically have a high degree of confidence in their ability to deal with issues
and concerns as they arise. Let’s say the delivery of some equipment is delayed a week, causing
changes in the project schedule, or the beta test of a software program identified far more
problems than expected. If the project manager knows the problems, the project has a plan for
recovering, the team developed a solution and will be back on track soon, should the project
manager inform the client? The answer seems like an easy yes, yet many project managers often
believe there is no reason to bother the client with a problem they have under control.

Then suppose a second delay occurs on the equipment delivery or the fixes for the beta test are
more costly than expected. Now the problems have elevated to the point the client needs to be
informed. The greater the distance between the time of the event and the time the client knows
about the events, the greater the client’s frustration and mistrust. Including the client in the
processes for handling project issues or concerns, as well as recovery planning, enables the client
to develop confidence that problems will be addressed successfully. Including the client early in
the process for dealing with problems enables the client to contribute with solutions and builds
confidence that there is open and clear communication.

New Estimates Increase Cost Projections

On a large, complex project in South America, the project team was re-estimating the project
cost and schedule projections after the project design was complete. The team was also
conducting a new risk analysis, and the results of the cost and schedule projections, together with
the risk analysis, provided the client with better cash flow projections. Early in the process, the
project team understood that the cost projections would greatly increase and the final project cost
would be significantly above the contingency set aside for the project. The client looked for an
early indication of the results of the analysis, and the project manager kept reporting it was too
early to know. The project team debated how much contingency the project needed and how to
inform the client. When the client was told the results of the cost projections, the response was a
combination of frustration and anger. The project manager was removed from the project and a
new project manager assigned.
In the example above, when first indications suggested that estimates were low and several items
in the budget needed extra funds, the project manager should have had conversations with the
client. Including one or more members of the client’s team in the re-evaluation effort would have
kept the client informed of the progress regularly and built trust in the new numbers. The project
team could have offered suggestions and contributed to possible solutions for addressing the
concerns that were developing, as costs were higher than expected. Dealing openly and early
with the client is critical to client satisfaction.

Clients are often involved in major decisions on the project. For example, if the project invested
another million dollars, the project could be completed a month early. The client will conduct the
cost-benefit analysis and decide if the extra expense is worth the gain in time. Once this decision
is made, the necessary changes are made in the execution plan and new goals are established
through the change management process. Later, for reasons outside the control of the project, the
project will not experience the time savings from the additional investment of funds. It is
important to revisit the decision. A culture that encourages project team members to bring up the
need for revisiting decisions and a mechanism that makes it easy to surface issues and concerns
will increase the likelihood that these issues will come to the attention of the management team.
Establishing a culture and a mechanism for revisiting project decisions is important for meeting
client expectations.

P6 Design a suitable reporting method to review outcomes for a project

Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that managing a project can be tricky, but if the right
methods and lifecycle is applied in a project, the project can be made easy.