Assignment Code: MMPO-002/TMA/JULY/2022

Course Code: MMPO-002

Assignment Name: Project Management

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Q1) What is project management? What are the characteristics of a project? Discuss.

Ans) Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. There are various frameworks as suggested by several project management institutions. One of the most sought-after project management frameworks is that of Project Management Institute called the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) which involves 5 process groups and 10 knowledge areas. Spanning these knowledge areas and process groups are various project management processes that are interrelated to each other and form a logical sequence of processes. The PMBOK also lists out several project management-related tools and techniques for each of these processes.

Project managers must not only strive to meet specific scope, time, cost, and quality requirements of projects, they must also facilitate the process to meet the needs and expectations of the stakeholders who are involved in the project work. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the project from the perspective of stakeholders.

1. Characteristics of a Project: As evident from the list given here, projects are of different sizes and purposes. To define a project more accurately, the following characteristics will be helpful:

2. Unique Purpose: Every project should have a predetermined objective that is defined properly. For example, though there are several companies that create medicines, not any two medicine is the same. They are different in one or the other way.

3. Temporality: The nature of the project is temporary. If it goes on forever, then it is not a project. It can be qualified as operations that are ongoing. Therefore, a project should have a definitive end.

4. Progressive Elaboration: The projects are elicited as and when more information is made available. Projects are created with a rough idea and a close estimate when started. However, when more details about requirements are made clear the project is tuned and detailed as needed.

5. Role of Resources: Resources include manpower, machines, tools, or any other assets which are utilized to perform a particular task. For example, in the case of building a house, there are various types of tools like measuring tape, plumb bob, plastering machine, etc. are involved. Besides, there is specialized manpower like fitter, mason, painter, and helper required to perform this task. These all are referred to as resources.

6. Customer or Sponsor: A project is done with the goal of getting something done. This result can be used by the organisation itself or sold to a customer who will pay for it. A sponsor is an internal customer who agrees to pay for the project and decides what needs to be done.

7. Uncertainty: Not only are the results and conditions of each project different, but so are the results and conditions of each project. So, sometimes it's hard to define the project's goals clearly, figure out how long it will take to finish, or figure out how much it will cost. Uncertainty can also be caused by things outside of the company, such as suppliers taking too long to deliver parts, equipment breaking down during testing, etc. One of the main reasons project management is risky and difficult is because of uncertainty.

There shouldn't be projects just for the sake of having them. It's important to work on projects that are useful and help you reach a certain goal. This is because the projects will take time, money, and other resources. So, the organisation needs to know what purpose the project will serve. A good project manager helps make sure that the project goals are met. The project manager works closely with the project team, the project sponsor, and anyone else who has a stake in the project to define, plan, carry out, and reach the project goals.

Q2: What is a project charter? What are the inputs required to prepare a project charter? Discuss.

Ans) The Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge says that a project charter is a document that formally gives permission for a project to exist and gives the project manager permission to use organisational resources on project activities.

So, a project charter makes a connection between the project and the organization's strategic goals, which is the main reason the project was thought of in the first place. It is also a formal document that is sent to the organization's supporting functions and departments, such as procurement, finance, and human resources, so that they can figure out how much the project will cost and what resources it will need. In other words, it provides written proof that an organisation is committed to doing something in order to reach its goals. At least once at the start of the project, the project charter is made, and it is reviewed as needed in certain situations.

The project charter sets up a partnership between the organisation doing the work and the organisation asking for the work when the work is done as part of a contract. These are also called "external projects," and the best way to make an agreement is through a formal contract. But a project charter may still be used by the organisation doing the work to make sure the contract is done right.

The official start of a project was when the project charter was signed off on. It is important to find and officially name a project manager as soon as possible, preferably as the project charter is being written, but at the very least before any planning is done. So, the project manager will know what was talked about and decided about the project while the charter was being made and will be able to make the right decisions during the project. The project sponsor or project manager can work with the customer to make the project charter. This helps everyone understand the project's goals, purpose, and expected results. The project charter gives the project manager the power to plan, run, and keep track of the project.

A project-based organisation that has grown up will have formal roles and responsibilities, like a sponsor and a project or programme management office. The person who is in charge of the project should be at a level that is high enough to get money and resources for the project. No matter what they are, how they are used, or who they affect, projects are meant to solve a certain business case. So, chartering a project makes sure that the ongoing work is in line with the strategy. As an internal document for the organisation, a project charter is not a contract because there is no exchange of money.

Inputs to Project Charter

The project charter describes the need that the project must meet and how it will do so within the limits of the organisation. It is also affected by the agreements with the customer for projects that are done outside the company. These are what the project charter is based on.

Take a look at the following headings:

The business case is the document that is used most when making a project charter. The business case explains why the project should be done from a business point of view. It includes information about what the project is supposed to accomplish and how much it will cost. The document lists the assumptions and considerations that were made when the project was first thought of. This gives the project a set of limits that it needs to stay within in order to be successful. As was explained in a previous chapter, the business case is made based on a feasibility study of one or more areas, such as market demand, customer needs, technological changes, legal requirements, environmental impacts, social needs, organisational needs, etc.

Agreements like MOUs (Memorandums of Understanding), SLAs (Service Level Agreements), and LOIs (Letters of Intent) are needed for a project to happen. When making a deal with someone outside the company, a purchase order or contract is used. Inputs to the project charter come from things outside of the organisation. These are things like government or industry standards, market conditions, rules and regulations, the expectations of stakeholders, etc. Assets of an organisation include things like internal standards, framework, policies, and procedures. Also, a place to store historical information and lessons learned from past projects.

Q3) Discuss the role of management information systems (MIS) in the implementation and control of projects.

Ans) Once the project is up and running, the implementation phase, which is also the control phase, starts. Here, you use a variety of methods to make the best use of resources, track progress and costs, predict completion dates and the total cost of the project, and make sure that important tasks are done on time. A big project involves many different areas and fields of study. Each works as a separate, independent unit.

Integration is the way to get them to work together. It is the key to managing a project well. The success of a project depends on how well it is planned, directed, scheduled, monitored, and controlled. If project performance is to be measured and controlled in a good way, these project functions need to be tied together by a good information and control system. For a project to run smoothly, it should only use a single information and control system, not separate cost control systems for the project and each functional department.

The needs of both the project and the functional managers should be met by the integrated information and control system. The success of getting projects done on time depends on having all the necessary information at the right time. Usually, the information needed at different levels of a project would depend on how it is set up. In big projects, there could be three different levels: the top or corporate level, the general or executive management level, and the functional or operating management level. All three levels need different kinds of information. So, the information system has to be set up in a way that meets the needs of all three levels in a project. Information reports are mostly used for project monitoring and control, with the goal of making sure that projects are done on time and at the lowest cost possible. The social cost of being late can be very high, so finishing projects on time is of the utmost importance.

The project information and monitoring system would need to be able to do the following:

1. Record and report important information and the status of the project's different parts in a way that will bring the most important tasks directly to the attention of the right managers.

2. If there are any changes from the plan, they should be shown for each part of the project and how they will affect the overall status and completion of the project as a whole.

3. Serve as the basis for updating the project schedule as needed.

4. Find and report on important areas that are important to different levels of management and show what needs to be done to fix things.

5. Sort through the information and report on what stands out. In other words, the most attention is paid to the things that aren't going as planned.

6. Provide a way to measure how well different managers and departments are doing their jobs by comparing them to budgets, plans, and schedules on a regular basis.

Just keeping track of and reporting on the project's physical progress won't guarantee that it will be done on time and for the least amount of money. Along with keeping an eye on the project's physical state, it's also important to keep an eye on the value of the work done and how much it will cost to start the project late. In order to do this, the physical progress of each activity must be turned into money using unit rates that are set by dividing the total cost by all the activities.

When making a project management information system, the following things must be made clear:

1. The goal of each format or report, in a few words.

2. The chart of where things are.

3. How often the reports are made.

4. The people who are in charge of making the reports.

5. The way the reports are made.

6. The places where information must be found in order to write reports.

Q4) What do you mean by project risk management? Discuss the project risk management process in detail.

Ans) Project Risk Management is the process of finding risks that could affect the success of a project, analysing them, and deciding what to do about them. The goal of risk management is to reduce the negative effects that risks have on a project and make the most of the opportunities they create. Risk management is a "formally structured process for systematically identifying, analysing, and responding to systemic risks over the course of a project's life" in order to get rid of or control risks as much as possible.

Risk Management Process

Risk management process is the set of steps for how to do risk management activities. The following steps make up the process:

1. The first step in risk management is to figure out what risks might affect the project. This means looking at the project plans, talking to the people involved, and doing a risk assessment to find possible risks.

2. Once risks have been found, the next step is to figure out how bad they could be and how likely they are to happen. This means figuring out how each risk could affect the project and how likely it is that each risk will happen.

3. Planning for how to deal with risks: A plan for how to deal with risks is made based on the results of the risk analysis. This plan shows the steps that will be taken to deal with each risk, like avoiding it, giving it to someone else, or accepting it and making plans for what to do if it happens.

4. Once the plan for dealing with risks is set up, it is important to keep an eye on and control risks all the time. This means that the status of risks needs to be checked on a regular basis and action needs to be taken to deal with any changes in the risk environment.

5. At the end of the project, a final risk review is done to see how well the risk management process worked and to figure out what lessons were learned. This information can be used to make the process of managing risks better in the future.

In project management, making decisions as a group is very important because it can make or break this part of the project. Almost all risk management activities will involve meetings between the project manager, the team, and other stakeholders to make decisions about different activities, risks, and estimates. Table shows what each person or group involved in the project is responsible for. Keep in mind that a project manager is not the only person responsible for risk management.

Risk Responsibility

When working on a project and thinking about uncertainty and risk, you should look at the following questions and their answers.

1. Who are the people involved in the end?

2. What do each side want to get out of the deal?

3. What does each side want?

It's important to remember that managing project risks is an ongoing process that is built into the whole project management process. Effective risk management requires regular communication with stakeholders, collaboration between team members, and a proactive approach to finding and managing risks.

Q5) What is Agility in Project Management? Why is Agile Project Management becoming more popular? Discuss with suitable examples.

Ans) Agility in Project Management means being able to respond quickly to changes and adjust to new situations. It involves using agile methods like Scrum and Kanban, which focus on being flexible, working together, and improving all the time. In project management, the goal of agility is to provide value to stakeholders and meet project goals, even when the environment is unpredictable. This method helps teams quickly find and solve problems, put tasks in order of importance, and make decisions that will help the project succeed.

Some of the most important reasons why agile is getting more and more popular are:

1. Customers who are very Happy: Stakeholders are involved in the project throughout its life cycle, so they can give feedback and make sure that the final product will meet their needs. These deliverables will make the customer experience better as a whole.

2. Best Quality: The iterative approach helps deliverables get better with every iteration. After a few iterations, the team knows how to handle the work better.

3. Faster Time to Market: The prioritisation approach in Agile helps both the team and the customer figure out which features are most important and should be delivered first. The rest of the features can then be built on top of that in later iterations.

4. Adaptability: Agile teams can respond to change quickly and easily, even at the last minute. When teams are flexible, they can deliver consistently and handle the changing needs of clients well.

5. Visibility and Openness: An agile team works in small steps. This fixed length of time makes it easier to estimate costs for short projects than for long ones.

6. Risk Reduction: Regular iterations help everyone understand where the project is headed. This gives stakeholders a chance to look at the business value and the cost of implementation and make decisions based on that. Customers can decide to stop using the service at any time if business needs it.

7. Improved Communication: Stakeholders are involved from the beginning, so it's easy for everyone to understand what we're focusing on and what the challenges are.

8. Innovative Solution: The team can try things out and take their time to come up with a new solution.

9. Fewer Escalations: The team works well together and is self-organized. They give the customer what they want in less time and with better quality.

For an agile approach to managing a project to work, the project team needs to have an agile mindset. The Agile values and principles are helping the team adapt their behaviour and the way we do our work to new ways of working.

Examples of organizations that have successfully adopted agile project management include:

1. Spotify: Spotify has become a leading example of how agile methodologies can be applied in a software development context. The company has implemented a unique approach to agile that incorporates elements of Scrum, Kanban, and Lean to support its rapid growth and innovative product development.

2. IBM: IBM has embraced agile methodologies to improve the speed and quality of its software development process. By using agile approaches, IBM has been able to deliver products faster and respond more quickly to customer needs.

3. Netflix: Netflix has used agile methodologies to support its rapid growth and changing business needs. The company has implemented Scrum to manage its product development process and has seen significant improvements in efficiency and collaboration between teams.