Project Management

Project Management

Project

Project

  • A project is a specific and temporary activity with a start and end date, with clear goals set, defined objectives needed to be completed in a given budget. 

  • Elements of a project – 

    • Resources (FOP) 

    • Money 

    • Scope 

    • Time 

  • A project must be planned, managed, cost efficient to be successful

  • Key elements of project management 

    • Defining the project, setting goals 

    • Dividing it into smaller activities 

    • Controlling and managing it at every stage 

    • Assigning clear roles 

    • Quality standards issue

Impact of project failure 

  • Bad publicity 

  • Loss of future contracts 

  • Penalty payments

Reasons for failure 

  • Not enough information

  • Lack of finance, legal issues

  • Lack of coordination

  • Community against the product

  • Errors, wastage

  • Bad management, customers could not buy the product

  • Workers aren't motivated, not skilled enough, incompetent

  • Economic situations (neg)

  • Outdated project, quickly changing market

  • Bad planning- resources aren't sufficient

Critical path analysis 

  • CPA is a planning technique that identifies all tasks in a project, puts them in the correct sequence and allows for the identification of the critical path. 

  • Activities that must be completed to achieve this shortest time make the critical path 

  • Process of identifying critical path – 

    • Identify the objective 

    • Put the tasks in a sequence and draw a network diagram 

    • Add durations 

    • Identify the critical path

Network diagrams

  • It is a diagram used in critical path analysis that shows the logical sequence of activities and the logical dependence between them – so the critical path can be identified

  • EST (Earliest Start Time) = EST of previous activity + duration of current activity

  • LFT (Latest Finish Time) = LFT in the previous node- duration of current activity

  • Free float shows the length of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the start of next activity

  • Free float = EST (next activity)-duration- EST (Current activity)

  • Total float = LFT- Duration- EST

  • Total float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed by without delaying the whole project

  • Total float = 0 the activity is on the critical path and cannot be delayed

Dummy activities 

  • Indicated by a dotted line 

  • Does not consume time or resources 

  • Used when – 

    • A & B start a project, C follows only A but D follows A + B

Advantages of CPA 

  • Used to assist planning and management of complex projects 

  • Helps calculate accurate delivery dates 

  • Calculation of EST allows special orders to be managed 

  • Calculation of LFT helps act as a checklist of measuring the success and efficiency 

  • Knowing the critical path helps understand which activities to focus on, which can’t be delayed 

  • Additional resources needed for speeding an activity could be used from non-critical activities 

  • Reduces total time taken as it encourages simultaneous development rather than sequential.

CPA – evaluation 

  • Doesn’t guarantee project success 

  • Skilled labour, motivated workers also needed 

  • Good management 

  • Experienced senior managers