Project Management

Misbah Faiz
BE Mechanical Program
Spring 2024 Semester
Let’s Recap
• Project life cycle
• Project initiation: SMART Goals, OKR, Scope, Determining project
success, stakeholder analysis, RACI chart, Project charter
• Project planning: Milestones, WBS, Project planning, Buffers,
Capacity planning, critical path, project schedule, kanban boards,
resource leveling, schedule compression, project budget
(direct/indirect costs, baseline, reserve analysis/contingency)
Procurement
• Procurement means obtaining all of the materials, services, and
supplies required to complete the project
• Procurement process:
1.Initiating: planning what you need to meet your project goals
2.Selecting: deciding which suppliers and vendors to use
3.Contract writing: developing, reviewing, and signing contracts
4.Controlling: making payments and maintaining and ensuring quality
5.Completing: measuring your success:
• Were the materials created good quality?
• Were there any issues with labor contracts?
• How were your relationships with vendors?
Vendors
• Vendor management entails sourcing vendors, getting quotes for their
work, deciphering which vendors will best fulfill your
needs, negotiating their contracts, setting deadlines for
them, evaluating performance, and ensuring payments are made
• You'll use performance trackers and meetings like quarterly business
reviews to track and evaluate overall performance to ensure that both
parties are living up to their initial agreement, and when there are
contracts and paperwork with terminology that you may not be
familiar with, you will enlist the help of a legal team.
Procurement Documents
• Initiation phase: Nondisclosure agreement (NDA)
• The purpose of an NDA is to keep confidential information within the
organization
• Selection phase: Project manager creates a request for proposal, or an
RFP
• Document that outlines the details and requirements of an organization's project
to be passed on to vendors. RFPs are used to solicit bids from vendors so that
you can then select which vendor might be the best for your project
• Contracting phase: A statement of work or an SOW is created
• An SOW is sent after the vendor is selected and evolves as the project goes on
Statement of Work
• A statement of work is a document that clearly lays out the products
and services a vendor or contractor will provide for the organization.
• An SoW also provides a description of the contractor's needs and
requirements to properly perform the agreed-upon services.
• Although the SoW covers the customer's needs, it's equally as
important to include the organization's needs and the vendor's needs
too.
• It's critical that all parties involved understand what is expected from
each of them in order to deliver the best possible products or services.
• The SoW will likely go through a few rounds of revisions because
several stakeholders may review it and suggest changes.
• As a project manager selecting a vendor, you first need to outline the
details and requirements of your project in order to solicit bids. Which
procurement document helps with this task?
1. A Statement of Work (SOW)
2. A work breakdown structure (WBS)
3. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
4. A request for proposal (RFP)
Common Ethical Traps in Procurement
• Corruption and bribery
• Sole-supplier sourcing: With sole-supplier sourcing, vendors may
reach out to buyers before a bid is even requested. When the buyer’s
organization decides to work with that vendor based on their previously
established relationship, that limits competition before the bidding has
even begun
• Interactions with state-owned entities: for any rules/regulations,
policies
• As a project manager, you’re sourcing a new vendor. The vendor is
located in a country that has a history of corruption in your industry.
You’ve had a great initial discussion with the vendor and you don’t
want to discriminate against it just because of the government’s and
other companies’ history of unethical practices. In 2-3 sentences,
describe the steps you should take to avoid any potential ethical traps.
Risk Management
• A risk is a potential event which can occur and can impact your
project.
• When you think about risk in the context of project management, you
will think about them as hypothetical.
• In other words, these aren't events that will definitely happen, but
because there's a possibility that they could happen, it's your
responsibility as the project manager to identify and plan for those
risks
• Risk management is the process of identifying and evaluating potential
risks and issues that could impact a project
• Failing to engage in meaningful risk management can have a
few big consequences for your project.
• Risk management helps you determine how flexible or rigid
your plan is and then make necessary adjustments.
• 1. Identify the risk. The first phase of the risk management process is
to identify and define potential project risks with your team. After all,
you can only manage risks if you know what they are.
• 2. Analyze the risk. After identifying the risks, determine their
likelihood and potential impact to your project. Serious risks with a
high probability of occurring pose the greatest threat.
• 3. Evaluate the risk. Next, use the results of your risk analysis to
determine which risks to prioritize.
• 4. Treat the risk. During this phase, make a plan for how to treat and
manage each risk. You might choose to ignore minor risks, but serious
risks need detailed mitigation plans.
• 5. Monitor and control the risk. Finally, assign team members to
monitor, track, and mitigate risks if the need arises.
Uncover opportunities using risk
management
• An opportunity is a potential positive outcome of a risk.
• An opportunity is a potential positive outcome that may bring
additional value to a project.
• Some examples of opportunities include:
• Completing a milestone ahead of schedule
• Discounted materials
• Availability of additional resources (people, investments, equipment)
Tools to help identify risks
• Brainstorming: Brainstorming is one of the most effective techniques
for identifying risks with the team because it allows groups
to spontaneously share ideas without judgment.
• Cause and Effect (Fishbone or Ishikawa Diagram): Cause-and-effect
diagrams show the possible causes of an event or risk and are very
useful at risk management. It is a part of brainstorming.
Step 1) Define the problem
Step 2) Identify the categories
Step 3) Brainstorm the causes
Step 4) Analyze the causes
How do you decide which risks to focus on?
• Risk Assessment Technique - how likely the risk is to occur and its
potential impact on a project
• Probability and Impact Matrix
• To create a probability and impact matrix, you will need to think about
the level of impact.
• Impact refers to the damage a risk could cause if it occurs.
• Impact is also determined on a scale of high, medium, and low.
Types of risks
• Time risks: Time risks refers to the possibility that project tasks will
take longer than anticipated to complete.
• Budget risks: Budget risk refers to the possibility that the cost of a
project will increase due to poor planning or expanding the project
scope.
• Scope risk: Scope risk refers to the possibility that a project won't
produce the results outlined in the project goals. You need to be aware
of scope risks because the deliverables of your project might not be
acceptable to your stakeholders or customers, and that may defeat the
purpose of the entire project.
• External risks
• Environmental risks (storm etc.)
• Regulatory
• Political
• Single point of failure risks: A single point of failure is a risk that, if
it were to materialize, could cause a significant amount of disruption
to your project and could even shut it down
• A lot of projects use subject matter experts (SMEs)—team members with a
deep understanding of a particular job, process, department, function,
technology, machine, material, or type of equipment. SMEs are involved to
advise you throughout the project life cycle
• Avoid: This strategy seeks to sidestep—or avoid—the situation as a
whole
• Minimize: Mitigating a risk involves trying to minimize the
catastrophic effects that it could have on the project. That is why you
will usually hear mitigation strategies referred to as workarounds.
• Transfer: The strategy of transferring shifts the responsibility of
handling the risk to someone else
• Accept: You can accept the risk as the normal cost of doing business.
Active acceptance of risk usually means setting aside extra funds to
pay your way out of trouble. Passive acceptance of risk is the “do
nothing” approach. While passive acceptance may be reasonable for
smaller risks, it is not recommended for most single point of failure
risks
Risk Management Plan
Activity
Project Title: Design and Manufacturing of a Portable Wind Turbine Power Generator
• Project Description: The project involves designing and manufacturing a portable
wind turbine power generator that can be used for off-grid power generation in
remote areas or during outdoor activities such as camping or hiking. The turbine
should be lightweight, easy to assemble and disassemble, and capable of harnessing
wind energy efficiently to generate electricity. The project also includes developing a
suitable support structure, energy storage system, and user interface for monitoring
power output.
• Task for Students:
1.Write the possible risks
2. Create a probability and impact table for the risks
3.Add a mitigation plan against each risk