Project Management

Table of contents 3

Getting Started 4

Choosing a Project Management Case Study for your workbook 8

Topic 1 : Process Thinking for Project Management 10

Topic 2 : Defining and Scoping Projects 15

Topic 3 : Planning 17

This Workbook is designed to help to crystalise and reflect on a project plan, its structure, its ‘do-ability’ and its efficacy. It should be developed as homework and in tutorials.

We encourage you to work in groups to help you to complete YOUR work. The completion of this workbook will be assessed. Each section of the workbook demands different inputs. As a general rule of thumb, each section of the workbook will demand between 250-1000 words. In this workbook figures will not count towards the word limit but you will need to provide a rationale or justification for your analyses.

Each student in the group should undertake two topics each. If you have 5 members in your group, then all 10 topics should be completed. If you have 4 members, then 8 topics of your choice should be completed. Please indicate who has done which topic on the table below.

Please note: failure to complete this table will result in a penalty of 5 marks.

We have a special term for groupwork in this module. Each group is called a ‘ThinkTank’. This is to reflect that it is the locus of energy and activity to help drive the inquiry, thinking and learning activities. There are two roles that you are required to fulfil simultaneously and iteratively.

Why not develop your skills as a consultant, by mentoring and coaching each other member of the ThinkTank, to help them refine their topics and ultimately improve the whole project? You can help them identify suitable methods, processes, clients and contacts etc.

Each member of the ThinkTank will be responsible for the tasks of two of the topics in this workbook. It is the responsibility of that member as project manager of those tasks to complete the tasks with the support of the other members of the ThinkTank. You will be assessed for the work for which you were acting as the project manager.

During the development of the workbook, you will be required to think in a slightly abstract way. This is because on the commencement of a project design and its management, it is always ‘in the future’. This means that there is no way to empirically prove it. The proof comes from the precision and detail that you conceptualise at the outset. This is a core criteria running through the workbook. The operation of the ThinkTank is an opportunity to share ideas, methods, techniques etc. You will sharpen your own thinking by considering the perspectives of other members of your ThinkTank. It will help you continuously refine your ideas. Remember, no one perspective is ‘right’ in an absolute sense, but we have the responsibility to continue to refine our ideas, and defend them with detail and precision. Use your ThinkTank to do this. Remember, at all times, you should take responsibility for sharpening your own thinking!

You and your ThinkTank have a huge responsibility - you are undertaking something fundamentally important – to scope projects that are realisable, focused and precise... this is always a challenge in practice, and you have the opportunity to fine tune your skills and approach.

We would encourage you to embrace this, and work as project managers do… i.e in teams.

Please Note, in this workbook...

• Topic areas are identified as a title.

• Introductory words are in normal type.

• The workbook will be used in both lectures and in the tutorials.

• In tutorials, your tutor will be available to help to guide you – so please ask questions!

• Please try and fill in as much as you can of this workbook before the tutorial, using your research and ThinkTank to help you.

• This workbook is assessed – assessment criteria can be found at the back of this workbook.

There is a highly process oriented approach to the learning in this module. You will be working in ThinkTanks, and be relating the conceptual and abstract, to the pragmatics and skills of planning, designing and controlling projects, using this workbook. You should start at the beginning and move through it, although sometimes you may end up going back and forth a bit to ensure that all tasks are integrated. You should discuss each section with your ThinkTank members.

You are tasked to apply critical reflexive thinking at all times, to explore each others’ ideas about how to develop an effective inquiry. The ThinkTank members will also share the reading that they do with others, with the view that they all will benefit from an effective team.

YOUR WORKBOOK

You are required to complete the workbook on a case of your choice. This can be based on a project that you are currently undertaking as part of your studies at the University. It can also be something else you are involved in at a personal level. A list of project examples is given below, which may give you some ideas:

1. You are planning organizing and managing a sports event

2. You are involved in the installation of a new bar coding system in an on-line retailer

3. You are installing a new computerized production and inventory control system

4. You are undertaking the design and development of a product prototype

5. You are doing a feasibility study to decide whether to buy new machinery

6. You are undertaking the acquisition and installation of a new CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machinery

7. You are undertaking the conversion of the plant layout from process layout to group technology layout

8. You are involved in the selection of a new plant site

9. You are constructing a new facility

10. You are planning, organizing and managing a professional conference or a trade show

11. You are planning and organising a friend’s wedding

12. You are setting up a 3D Printing business

If you cannot think of a good project, then you can use the case below as a starting point.

**IMPORTANT NOTE**

It is important to note that you should use the same project throughout the workbook. If you believe that you cannot complete an activity for your project, you need to provide a rationale for not having completed the activity and, as an exception, you may choose an alternative project to complete the activity.

CASE STUDY

You have been employed as a Project Manager by the University of Sheffield to organise a Summer Party to celebrate the end of exams. The event will take place on 14th July. You are to organise all aspects of the event including, booking the entertainment, advertising and ticketing.

Notes:

• You need to define when the project will start. You may select the start date.

• Be sure that the ticket price you offer covers your costs.

• Any costs need to be justified. You may research costs from the Internet, but ensure that you reference where you got them from in your report.

• You may determine the venue where the party will be held. If you cannot find a cost for hiring a venue, assume that it will cost £5,000. This only includes the hiring of the building and does not include, for example, the beverages, food and music costs.

• You may have access to the venue from 5:00am on 14th July to 8:00am on 15th July to set up and take down the event.

• You must make a minimum of £20,000 profit.

Lecture Slides 1.0

Activity 1.1: From your experience or from your reading, recount a story in which a project ‘failed’. What did failure look like in this instance? In your opinion, what were the reasons & consequences? Do we need better methods/techniques/tools/models to help us communicate/clarify in projects?

One of the stories which a project ‘failed’ is the Denver International Airport Baggage Handling System. The problem with the airport baggage handling system caused a newly-built airport to sit idle for 16 months while the engineers tried to solve the problem. This added $550M USD to the initial cost of the airport and only a shadow of what was originally planned for the system was implemented in the end. Only outbound flights on a single concourse was supported by the system while the other baggage was handled manually. The system was scrapped altogether in August 2005 since the monthly $1M USD system maintenance cost outweighed the value of the remaining parts of the system offered.

The reason that this happened is due to the failure to recognise the complexity of the project during the risk analysis of the project. Underestimating the complexity and the risk of the project caused the effort involved and the project planning to be underestimated too. This led to time insufficiency and increased the level of schedule pressure causing the project’s end goal being impossible to reach.

This problem could be avoided in the future doing risk analysis thoroughly during the project planning phase. Consult the experts to recognise the complexity and the risks of the project so that the problem could be addressed earlier and the project would not be underestimated.

Activity 1.2: Identify a project that you will work on for the duration of this workbook. Briefly, describe it.

Ideally, this should be something that you are already working on.

The project is organising and managing a career fair for the students in the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department of The University of Sheffield. The representatives from different engineering companies will be invited to provide their company’s general information and their job vacancies for fresh graduates or internship programmes. It is a fantastic opportunity for the students to present themselves to the companies’ representatives as they are looking for their potential future employee. It is also an opportunity for the companies to promote their organisation and their brand.

It will take the form of series of tables staffed by the companies’ representatives who are knowledgeable about the company and each table will be stocked with informational literature and posters. Apart from getting more information on their favourite companies, the students can also offer their Curriculum Vitae (CV) to the companies’ representatives. They can include their own personalisation in their CV so that the companies’ representatives would remember them and take notes for future references. The students can also exchange contact information with the companies’ representatives. It could be helpful in the future for the students to ask for job vacancies and most companies do not bother to advertise their job vacancies to save their money leading to less competition for the students.

Activity 1.3: In your groups, try to depict your project as a process. Use text to justify a diagram. Once you have identified the process and defined its inputs and its outputs, now try to identify what ‘success’ would look like, i.e. what are the criteria or measure that you would use to judge the project a ‘success’?

How difficult did you find the above? How did it structure your thinking? Why was it that such simple constructs can be difficult to apply?

The project can be depicted as a process of educating the students on how they could improve their employability and networking skills and how they could use the skills to get a job.

The input of this project are the students that are having a lack of understanding of what they should do to get a job after graduating. The output of this project will be the students gaining more understanding and clearer image on what they should do to secure their place with their favourite employer company as a fresh graduate.

This successfulness of this project will be measured by observing the number of fresh graduate students that manage to get a job. The project is a success if the number of fresh graduate students that manage to get a job increases compared to the previous year. This information can be obtained from the university’s career service as they keep track on the employability of the fresh graduates of the university annually.

Lecture slides 2.0

Activity 2.1: Define the goals of the project and specific objectives within each of the goals (at least two goals and objectives). For example, describe your goals and objectives in bulleted form as below.

Goal 1:

• Objective 1

• Objective 2

Goal 2:

• Objective 1

• Objective 2

Goal 3:

• Objective 1

• Objective 2

.

Activity 2.2: List a set of measurable factors that will make the project a success. Make these ‘SMART’. What are the Critical Success Factors? Are they ‘measurable’? How will you know when the project is completed?

Activity 2.3: Define the scope of the project deliverables.

Activity 2.4: What assumptions have been made that may affect the project or others’ views of the project?

Lecture slides 3.0

Activity 3.1: For your project, develop a Work Breakdown Structure in outline form. Figure 1 gives an example of a template for a WBS and can be adapted to cover fewer or more activities in fewer or more levels. Use your group members to help to check/validate your thinking.

Figure 1 Template WBS

Responsibility Assignment Matrix

Activity 3.2: For the activities in your Work Breakdown Structure, identify who could be responsible for the work.

Activity 3.3: Define the target dates at which key milestones will be reached including final delivery. When must the project deliver its final outcome?

Lecture slides 4.0

Activity 4.1: Develop a simple Gantt Chart from your WBS. (Use additional sheets if necessary). Insert your milestones, and consider the slack(float) in each activity.

Note that in this template, we put the time intervals in (in months), but these will be replaced by your own time intervals.

1 Please note, this workbook is designed on the premise that it is an aid to inquiry. It does not provide answers! Furthermore, it should also be noted that none of the tasks and activities have a ‘correct’ answer in an absolute sense. Your answer will be as good as the process of inquiry that is applied.