...Your CEO has asked you to do some high-level planning during your project initiation. What are some of the things that the project manager should provide to support this request? Do you consider this a wise request considering you are just initiating your project? Why or Why not? By Nana Kwabena Agyemang One of the major sources of project failure is a lack of a well-defined and formalized project initiation process which includes poor planning and poor quality requirements specification. As matter of fact, poor project planning is really common in most project initiations. Right from the project initiation, if the initial stages contains any issues it can carry on throughout the project life-cycle and the results of this is clear, project failure. This is why as a PM, you should be able to involve or bring together each and every stakeholder during project initiation to help curb out any doubts and resolve any issue before the start of the project. This initiation stage is very important because it is vital for the team who will deliver the product, for those who’s going to be the final user of the product, and for the stakeholders in the project to come into agreement on the project initiation. The PM should define the project initiation stage to include the following: * Creation of a Product Description Statement: This should be a high-level and informal, statement that will help describe the very nature or characteristics of the product or process that’s going to...
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...Standard Operating Procedure Personal Finance Project Team Author/s: | Lucille Olivier | Document Ref: | SOP | Creation Date: | 13 September 2011 | Version: | 1.0 | Last Updated: | 13 September 2011 | Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Purpose 1.3 Project Framework 1.4 Project definition, prioritisation and approval 1.5 Project Process 2. Initiation Phase – The Needs Analysis Process 2.1 Initiating a Project 2.2 Stakeholder Analysis 2.3 Kick Off Meeting 2.4 Functional Specification 2.5 Initiation Phase Overview 3. Validation and Feasibility Phase 3.1 Technical Specification 3.2 Costing 3.3 Reporting Analysis 3.4 Pre Project Plan 3.5 Communication Plan 3.6 Risk Register 4. The Approval Phase * The business case * Motivational Documents 5. The Prioritisation Phase 5.1 The priority matrix 5.2 Resource Scheduling 5.3 The Prioritisation Phase Overview 6. The Execution Phase 6.1 Training plan 6.2 Operations plan 6.3 Communication plan 6.4 The Execution Phase Overview 7. Monitoring and Controlling Phase 7.1 The Monitoring and Controlling Phase Overview 8. The Closure Phase 8.1 Administrative Closure 8.2 Preparing project closeout and lessons learnt 8.3 Recognize and celebrate outstanding project work 8.4 The Closure Phase Overview Introduction * 1.1 Introduction A Standard Operating...
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...Project 1_3 Statement of work template Project name: Development and implementation of system for a large state government Date: 11/12/2014 Vendor name: Aject International Description of deliverables or procurement items (in as much detail as needed to accurately define the proposed work): During initiation phase business plan is designed, scope of project and stakeholders expectations are define. The purpose is developing an online portal for communications between different department and a report system to maintain company data. The vendor will consult the sponsors and stakeholders about the roles and expectations. Project sponsor will have the responsibility of approval of business plan (Project Charter) and signs off on major deliverables and approvals. Required timeline and milestone dates: Time frame of the project: 12 months. PROJECT DETAILS DATE MILESTONE POSITION 11/12/14 Project Start 25 3/03/15 Initiation 10 6/06/15 Planning -10 14/09/15 Execution 15 10/11/15 Control and Measure -15 25/11/15 Closure 15 22/12/15 Project End 15 Collateral services required of vendor (eg performance reporting, post-project operational support* etc): Assign Project Sponsor, Create Business plan or project charter, Create project proposal document, which identifies, goal, budget, duration estimation and resource allocation, Assign Project manager, Send documents for sponsors review and proposal , Plan project Kick-off Meetings, Project schedule plan...
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...version) Covers the PRINCE2 Practitioner syllabus Link to PRINCE2 Foundation Self Study guide Link to PRINCE2 Practitioner Self Study guide Sample By Frank Turley, The PRINCE2 Coach MgmtPlaza – Affiliate of TAG Practitioner Level The PRINCE2® Practitioner Training Manual ii The PRINCE2® Practitioner Training Manual Thank you for reading our PRINCE2 Training Manual. The main objective of this book is to provide an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand PRINCE2® manual. The idea for this book came from the questions I received from people trying to learn PRINCE2 and after reading the official PRINCE2 manual “Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2”. The official PRINCE2 Manual for the Project Manager is an excellent reference manual but can be rather difficult to pick up and read if you are new to both project management and PRINCE2. So this book is meant to be – and is – an easy introduction to PRINCE2 and is quickly becoming the most read book for people wishing to learn about PRINCE2 and prepare for Foundation Exam and Practitioner Exam. Feedback: We welcome any feedback (suggests to improve or corrections), Feedback The Swirl logo™ is a Trademark of the Office of Government Commerce PRINCE2 ® is a Registered Trademark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries Free PRINCE2Self Study Course We offer a free full Self Study course if you but your official PRINCE2 Exam from us. Our SelfStudy course includes, Audio...
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...TRADITIONAL PROCESS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT This is the classical and most used methodology, based on a straightforward problem solving strategy: problem definition, solution planning, solution implementation, and solution evaluation. This Traditional Approach consists of 5 stages: Project Initiation, Project Planning, Project Execution, Project Control and Project Closure. Although boundaries between some stages and stage components aren’t completely clear, it’s extremely important to see these stages as fundamental parts that will progressively contribute to your project documentation, completion, and to clearly communicate what has to be done. • PROJECT INITIATION Project Initiation includes several tasks that will affect the whole project and its final outcome. This stage should be carried out through close interaction with the project owner in order to clearly define the scope and boundaries. Main components of this stage are: PROJECT OWNER AND STAKEHOLDERS DEFINITION Extremely important, to define who will be the Owner of the project is crucial to avoid failure. Very often the Project Owner will be one of those Stakeholders. SCOPE AND BOUNDARIES The Scope is one of the crucial documents the Project Manager needs to get approved by people involved in the project, the Stakeholders. ENVIRONMENT Depending on what kind of project they’re working on, the project team needs to understand the environment where the project will be developed and its potential relationships...
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...------------------------------------------------- project manageme Task 1: 1.1: Principles of Project Management: 1. Identify Goal/Tasks – Evaluate the project as a whole and break it down into smaller, manageable steps to ensure thorough completion. Identify what the key tasks are and prioritise them into a logical sequence. 2. Identify Key Stakeholders – Based on key tasks of the project, group tasks into categories. Link the categories to stakeholders with key skills and experience in their particular field of expertise e.g. IT staff will specialise in IT related tasks, Finance department will specialise in overseeing financial tasks. 3. Agree Deadlines – Based on identification of key tasks and integration of stakeholders to project tasks, layout a timeline of when the project starts and when it can be completed as efficiently as possible. Delays in completion can cause a project to go over budget and create negative customer relations. Overview: These three principles will create a clear objective of the project, outline the following tasks required to complete it, the stakeholders responsible for each task and the timeframe allocated to execute the project as fast and efficiently as possible. 1.2: Three Benefits of Project Management: 1. Efficiency in Delivering Services – This will stem from project coordination and organisation. The more concise your project is, it will deliver clarity and efficiency to tasks and allow you to avoid problems and troubleshooting...
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...WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE (WBS) Remote Control Rotary Mower YVONNE MILES 06-166 PROJECT MANAGEMENT 627-6 NOVEMBER 15, 2015 INTRODUCTION The WBS is a view into the project which shows what work the project encompasses. It is a tool which helps to easily communicate the work and processes involved to execute the project. The Project Manager and project team use the WBS to develop the project schedule, resource requirements and costs. There are many ways you can present the WBS for your project; this template provides many of the most popular layouts from which you can choose. Depending on where in the Project Plan you're putting the WBS a different layout may be more suitable for you. For instance many Project Managers include a high level WBS within the project plan, then a detailed version as an appendix to the plan. You may find that you prefer one layout for a high level WBS and a different one for a detailed WBS. In order to save space in this template we only developed the WBS examples down to the third level. In your project you will want to develop them down to a much more detailed level using the 8 to 80 rule (where the WBS is broken down to where a work package contains between 8 and 80 hours of work to complete). The Work Breakdown Structure presented here represents all the work required to complete this project. OUTLINE VIEW The outline view presents an easy to view and understand layout for the WBS. It is also a good layout...
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...Initiation Phase During the initiation phase of the Loyalty Points project, the development team must store one to one interviews with key stakeholders in a secure location. The key deliverables in this stage are the business requirements document (BRD) and the project charter. Hence, the project manager (PM) must store these notes and documents in a secure location. If the documents are in electronic format, having a full disk encryption technique like Secure Disk from Seagate Technologies or a file encryption program like PGP Desktop would be an acceptable choice to cipher all documents in the event an inside or outside attacker stole any hardware during the initiation phase project documentation of the loyalty points program. (Conklin et. al., 2012) Planning Phase In the planning phase of the loyalty points program, JAD session notes between stakeholders and the development team along with the work breakdown structure (WBS), Data Flow Diagrams (DFD), and system flow charts will be the key deliverables for this phase. Like the initiation phase, the PM must consider what medium to store JAD, WBS and DFD documents. If the PM stores these documents in electronic format, using a full disk or file encryption program in tandem with username/password combination for the laptop or desktop OS would be a good layered defense for user authentication to gain access to these project documents. (Conklin et. al., 2012) If the deliverables are in hard copy, having the copies...
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...1 Practical Application – Project Management (Study Tours Program) 1.1 Introduction Currently our institute has been granted government funding to run programs for students in mainstream courses, however under the new funding scheme being introduced from 2014 we are required to offer more courses funded from commercial revenue to sustain our business. There are several courses that can be offer commercially such as training for organisations, offshore delivery programs and Study Tours/Study Abroad programs. I would like to discuss Study Abroad programs on this paper. There are 4 phases to arrange and complete Study Abroad programs – initiation, development, implementation (students are studying at the college) and graduation (evaluation). I would like to talk about initiation and implementation phases. 1.2.1 Initiation: Inquiries from clients are received (input). Information of our Study Abroad program can be found on our website therefore inquiries could come from agents or directly from institutes. Once the inquiry is received, program request form is sent out to the client (output). The program will be customised based on the client requests. Once the completed form is received, the information (input) of subject choices, timing, duration, and number of students is forwarded to appropriate Faculties to discuss and draft the program. Faculties determine the hours of teaching and other necessary items to deliver the program (output). The detail of items (input)...
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...Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Wireless Access Point Project Rodney Smith Dr. Cheryl C. Mason CIS 517 IT Project Management July 24, 2012 Introduction The WBS is a view into the project which shows what work the project encompasses. It is a tool which helps to easily communicate the work and processes involved to execute the project. The Project Manager and project team use the WBS to develop the project schedule, resource requirements and costs. The Work Breakdown Structure presented here represents all the work required to complete the project of deploying ten (10) wireless access points in our company’s warehouse and break room over three floors. Over the next 90 days, we will begin the project by installing each access point 500 feet of each other to cover the entire warehouse to enhance our Wireless Network for the Employees and Customers. 1. Wireless Access Point Project 1. Initiation 1.1.1 Evaluation & Recommendations 1.1.2 Develop Project Charter 1.1.3 Submit Project Charter 1.1.4 Project Sponsor Reviews Project Charter 1.1.5 Project Charter Signed/Approved 2. Planning 1.2.1 Planning Phase 1.2.2 Determine Customer Requirements 1.2.3 Specify Company Requirements 3. Execution 1. Execution & Control Phase 2. Verify & Validate User Requirements 3. Design WAP Network System 4. Obtain Hardware/Software 5. Install Wireless System ...
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...processes associated with Project Management are as below: 1. The Project Initiation: During the starting procedure you are making the reports which are expected to characterize another task, or another period of a current venture. Commonly a plausibility study is performed or a business case made. These are thought to be a piece of the undertaking starting procedure bunch since they are made before the begin of a venture. The most discriminating piece of the start procedure is the undertaking contract. The venture contract formally approves a task, and once it's marked the undertaking can then advance to the arranging procedure. Start for the most part includes characterizing an undertaking and increasing regard to start working; for our situation some of this had officially happened. We drew nearer the issue painstakingly and had officially decided it was best to hold our meeting in a focal area with simple access. 2. The Project Planning: The Project Planning Process further elucidates the venture's targets and plans the greater part of the exercises vital with a specific end goal to meet the venture's destinations and degree. Each of these task arranging layouts furnishes you with record designing, direction on composing every segment, standard substance where it can be institutionalized alongside test content. 3. The Project Execution The Project Executing Process incorporates the procedures to perform the work on the undertaking as per the Project Management Plan. This...
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...+ PROJECT MANAGEMENT Fundamentals + Definitions A project ? Unique A start An end Deliverables Resources Environment + Let’s drill down… OPERATIONS PROJECT PROGRAM PORTFOLIO + Key parameters SCOPE + Recipe - Skilled individuals, with an approved & supported mission. - Usage of a structured & shared methods - Usage of iterative processes to deliver expected deliverables + Challenges Fuzzy goals No shared understanding of the situation No support Irealistic state of mind (politics…) top-down without bottom up Lack of resource management Multiple changes in the direction Lack of communication No standard process + initiation Initiate some communication with the stakeholders Draft a first version of the POS (Project Objective Statement) Draft a first version of the priority matrix + Initiation Initiate some communication with the stakeholders What do we want to address ? Opportunity / threat ? What is the foreseen deadline ? What are the resources ? Where is our priority, what are our constraints ? (scope, time, resource) ? + Initiation One vision: «I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is over, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth....$531 million in this fiscal year « May 25, 1961 POS: The USA will send a man to the moon and return him safely to the...
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...AS1: Approaches to Project Management and Methodology March 2015 1. Standard approaches to manage projects Provide brief descriptions of the following standard project management approaches: (a) The traditional approach (5 steps) The traditional approach to project management identifies a sequence of five steps to be completed in chronological order, as follows: * Initiation * Planning * Execution * Monitoring * Completion/closure Most projects will incorporate these stages, even where more complex project management methods are used but it is a method suited to simple, smaller projects, which do not have multiple tasks and people within the project team. (Hom 2013) Available at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4014-project-management.html) Accessed 25/03/15 (b) Critical chain project management This method was developed by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt and introduced in his book ‘Critical Chain’ (1997). It applies his Theory of Constraints to address project delivery issues, such as missed deadlines and increased costs and it focuses on eliminating delays due to uncertainty and over-estimation of task duration. The critical chain is comprised of the tasks which result in the longest path to project completion, with critical resources assigned to the tasks. The project schedule is then shortened by reducing the estimated task time and buffers are built in to provide for conflicts. Available at: (http://www.goldratt.co.uk/resources/critical_chain/)...
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...IT Project Implementation Failures HCS/245 September 16th, 2013 Marc Magill Project Implementation A typical IT Implementation process normally follows SDLC process. SDLC refers to Standard Development Life-Cycle. Below are the standard SDLC phases: 1) Initiation Phase 2) System Concept Development 3) Planning 4) Requirements Analysis 5) Design 6) Development 7) Integration & Testing 8) Implementation 9) Operations & Maintenance 10) Disposition Any project starts with an Initiation phase when a Business or Project Sponsor identifies a use case or need or opportunity to achieve some of the company’s strategic goal. Based on this proposal will be created. System Concept Development phase where we define the scope, business requirements trace matrix, Cost Benefit Analysis, Risk Management Plan and if the proposal can be feasible and define an approach. This is the phase where you identify all stakeholders and socialize the project for its approval. Planning phase is where you do vendor selection; create project management plan, project schedule and any other planning documents. Budget plan, Resource plan will also be defined in planning phase. Disposition provides end of system activities and lessons learned and close the project. Requirements Analysis is where you work closely with business users and understands their needs, develop user needs and create a detail functional design document and get approval from all stakeholders. Design phase is...
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...Support Paper 129-2007 Project Organization Proposal (POP) and Project Leadership Plan Guide Rex Pruitt, PREMIER Bankcard, Inc., Sioux Falls, SD 57104 ABSTRACT In my 20+ years of experience using SAS and organizing projects, the success or failure of any project, no matter how small or large, generally resulted from how well a project was planned, organized and executed. This paper presents an easy to use Project Organization Proposal (POP) that can be implemented without adding additional resources to the MIS or IT divisions. It simply suggests the effective use of existing resources. However, as would be expected, the POP will only succeed if it receives support from 1) business MIS Management, 2) IT Management, 3) and their respective staff. The collaboration of all resources associated with a project is critical to its success. Clearly defining roles and accountabilities must be established prior to project initiation. Also included in this paper is a Project Leadership Plan guide. This guide will serve as a critical planning document, or checklist, that can be used to ensure that any project meets with success. If this guide cannot be completed, the project should not be initiated. 1 SAS Global Forum 2007 Planning, Development and Support INTRODUCTION In my 20+ years of experience using SAS and organizing projects, the success or failure of any project, no matter how small or large, generally resulted from how well a project was planned, organized...
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