2

Project Management for Effective

Operations Management
Daniel Eyers and Mohamed Naim

2.1 Introduction
The ability to effectively manage projects is becoming an increasingly
important competence for operations managers to excel in. The well-
reported challenges arising from heightened global competition, intro-
duction of innovative technologies, and extensively changing business
practices necessitates that Operations Managers can change and adapt
to many new requirements. Often, this recognized change from ‘busi-
ness as usual’ leads companies to instigate a new project initiative to
transform their operations from perceived inadequacy in their current
state to a much more successful future state. In this utopian vision the
project yields amazing benefits and singlehandedly transforms oper-
ations to meet the new business requirements. Nothing goes wrong,

D. Eyers (*) · M. Naim 
Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
e-mail: eyersdr@cardiff.ac.uk
M. Naim
e-mail: NaimMM@cardiff.ac.uk
© The Author(s) 2019 11
P. Wells (ed.), Contemporary Operations and Logistics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14493-7_2
12    
D. Eyers and M. Naim

everyone is happy, and the company is far more successful thanks to the
outcome(s) of a highly successful project.
Of course, this is seldom a true reflection of the real world, and by
their very definition, projects place unique demands on operations and
those who manage them. Projects are a deviation from normal business
practice—something new, something probably quite unfamiliar, and
something that will place different challenges on those involved. Unless
the intended outcomes are quite trivial projects are often complex,
bringing together a plethora of resources (human and otherwise) that
would not normally be combined to achieve specific objectives. How
well these objectives are defined, whether they change over the lifetime
of the project, and how success is measured will vary between differ-
ent projects, and even between individuals involved within the same
project.
The management of a project is seldom an easy task, and a whole
industry has grown up around the provision of project management
expertise. Methodologies such as PRINCE2 (Projects IN a Controlled
Environment) and Agile Project Management have been developed as
all-purpose solutions to project management problems, and project
management consultants skilled in these approaches are readily available
to help firms manage their projects. However, whilst such consultants
are often specialists in the delivery of projects, they are seldom well-
equipped to understand the complexities and challenges faced in con-
temporary operations management. Conversely, experienced Operations
Managers are typically functional specialists for their own industries,
but they are seldom project management experts. More likely they are
busy individuals juggling a plethora of challenges arising from day-to-
day operations, with the management of various projects being one of a
multitude of activities that they need to perform.
The aim of this chapter is therefore to provide a straightforward,
accessible, and easy-to-implement set of project management tools that
are suitable for contemporary operations management. We do not set
out to provide a detailed and exhaustive account of the various project
management methodologies, nor do we attempt to outline the totality
of different methods. Other sources (e.g. Gido et al. [2017]; Larson and
Gray [2017]; Maylor [2010]; Axelos [2017]) provide excellent coverage
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13

of these topics for the generalist audience, and the interested reader is
directed to these to complement their knowledge. Ours is a focused
chapter providing ready-to-use project management techniques, specif-
ically relevant to the requirements of the Operations Manager for gener-
al-purpose projects. For large scale or particularly complex projects our
tools are unlikely to be sufficiently comprehensive but should prove use-
ful in the communication of project concepts to relevant stakeholders.
We start by providing a short overview of the fundamental project
management principles that Operations Managers need to appreciate,
including some of the key terminology typically employed within the
project domain. Building on these foundations we introduce three tech-
niques that require minimal management effort, but which can be effec-
tive in the definition and operation of projects. Finally, we contextualize
these tools using a practical example, highlighting their effectiveness
and important practical considerations.

2.2 Fundamental Principles of Project

Management
One of the fundamental characteristics of a project is its relationship
with time. Unlike day-to-day operations experienced within a company,
projects are unique in that they have a defined start-point and end-
point—and these are usually expressed in terms of dates, rather than
project outcomes. There are also likely to be a series of important mile-
stone dates within the definition of the project where major events or
activities are to take place. Whether the project adheres to all its dates,
or whether it over-runs, is often a consequence of the how realistic the
initial targets were, and the effectiveness (and in some cases luck) of the
project manager in driving the project to meet its targets. Regardless,
unlike many day-to-day operations, the focus on time within projects
is typically paramount, and by specifying dates up-front and record-
ing adherence to the plan, the ability to monitor the project’s progress
with respect to schedule adherence is made possible. For many pro-
jects delays incur a financial penalty, either directly as a consequence
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D. Eyers and M. Naim

Fig. 2.1  The project lifecycle

of increased project costs or imposed fines, or indirectly through the

delayed benefits that the project was supposed to deliver. In these cir-
cumstances ‘time is money’, and so careful monitoring and man-
agement is needed throughout the project lifecycle to minimize the
likelihood of delay.
All projects share a common lifecycle as shown in Fig. 2.1, which we
outline in the remainder of this section.

2.2.1 Project Definition and Initiation

Projects exist to enable the achievement of pre-defined project objectives

or project requirements that fulfil the needs of relevant stakeholders. In
the definition and initiation stages, the principal requirements of the
project are elicited and formally recorded. Good project management
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15

necessitates that these objectives are clearly defined, and this clarity of
definition is often largely influenced by the clarity of the project scope.
The project scope document succinctly explains what the objectives
of the project are, the key milestones and deliverables, the overall time-
table, and crucially, details of activities that are within the remit of the
project, and those which are excluded from the project. Effectively,
this provides a boundary to the requirements of the project, and helps
managers clearly understand what is within its remit. It is within the
defining stage that expectations are documented, and so it is critical that
these are made explicit at this stage.

2.2.2 Project Planning

All projects should deliver at least one outcome, and the planning stage
considers how to best achieve the requirements identified in the previ-
ous stage, subject to the constraints on time and resources for the pro-
ject. Operations Managers tend to be adept at the effective planning
and management of resources, but projects bring about special chal-
lenges due to the uniqueness and unfamiliarity of the tasks involved.
Whilst the repetitive activities undertaken in day-to-day activities can
usually be defined in terms of time and resource requirements, project
activities tend to lack such specificity, particularly where workers need
to acquire skills and experience with which to conduct their work.
These uncertainties typically mean project managers include additional
‘slack’ time to absorb delays arising from lost efficiency, and also have
contingency arrangements for where larger problems arise. In many
respects such approaches to the management of projects are the antith-
esis of those employed in contemporary operations management, where
the emphasis is on time-based competition and elimination of delays
and time wasting to promote efficient operations.
Effective planning to minimize wastage requires the logical decon-
struction of the project into a series of activities, from which schedules
of work are developed in varying levels of detail and plans for resource
allocation (financial and non-financial) are developed for use within
the project. There are a multitude of approaches that can be taken to
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D. Eyers and M. Naim

the planning of projects, though we suggest one of the most useful

and accessible techniques is Project Network Diagramming (PND).
Through this approach project managers can readily visualize the activ-
ities of the project as a series of nodes, each connected to one of more
nodes using arcs. At its basic level this provides a visual tool for the
analysis of the planned activities, helping the project manager under-
stand whether all activities have been identified for the project, and the
relationship between these. Next, the PND can be quantitatively evalu-
ated to calculate the timing of activities and develop an effective sched-
ule for the work. Drawing on the Critical Path Analysis technique, the
PND can be extended to show both the earliest time activities can be
started, and also the latest possible start time that will not disrupt the
project. This allows managers to make important decisions about when
to schedule activities in order to best utilize resources, but without neg-
atively affecting the overall completion time.

2.2.3 Project Execution

The execution stage is the principal value-adding part of the project,

where all the plans are enacted to deliver the business requirements pre-
viously elicited in the project definition stage. Within this stage the pro-
ject manager moves from being a visionary that looks to the future to
consider expectations and problems, and instead moves to a controlling
role, monitoring work undertaken, and ensuring that all activities are
progressing as needed. Many factors will affect the best way to effec-
tively execute the project (including project size, complexity, skills of
labour resources, and project management style, etc.), but several key
activities around communication will also take place. At the commence-
ment of execution there will be communication of the project plan and
restatement of objectives, which is particularly important when the
team are established. As the project progresses, information will be gen-
erated on the status of activities, and reporting of problems that arise.
Some project management techniques (e.g. PRINCE2) espouse a ‘man-
agement by exception’ approach, whereby only problems that are out-
side of ‘tolerance’ are reported to layers of management, whilst other
techniques advocate full reporting to all relevant parties. As information
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17

is collected and the project progresses, the project manager needs to

focus on whether the project is delivering according to plan, and if
not, identifying opportunities for correction. This may lead to changes
in way the project is executed, and so careful management of change is
needed to ensure all relevant stakeholders are advised of any alterations.

2.2.4 Project Closure

The project closure stage carefully manages the process of bringing the
project to a controlled and effective end. Often this stage may be over-
looked; after all the main value has already been delivered through the
execution stage—so why expend more effort on the project? However,
this is a critical stage of the project, where the project team reflect on
lessons learned that can benefit future projects, as well as the orderly
transition and release of resources to other activities.
Many project management approaches advocate the collection of
data to support lessons-learned reporting well in advance of project clo-
sure, since once resources have left the project it may prove difficult to
elicit their feedback. This may take the form of interviews or question-
naires as the project is in progress, or more terminal ‘exit interviews’ as
staff leave the project to undertake roles elsewhere.

2.3 Three Tools to Support Effective Project

Management for Operations Management
Building on the Project Management principles outlines in the proceed-
ing section, in this section we discuss three tools which may be employed
in the effective management of operations management projects.

2.3.1 The Project Charter

The Project Charter provides the central document that underpins the
management of the project. Developed as part of the project defini-
tion, it provides a high-level overview of the critical components of the
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D. Eyers and M. Naim

project and should be written using language accessible to all members

of the project team. Through the Project Charter, all members of the
project team should understand their individual responsibilities and
have a clear idea of how their work contributes to the achievement of
the various deliverables and overall objectives of the project. In many
instances the Project Charter is employed as the legal agreement with
the commissioner of the project, however in intra-organizational pro-
jects it is quite common to repurpose the document as an over-arching
control resource.
In terms of format, we strongly suggest that the Project Charter
should never extend beyond a single page. The challenge for its authors
is to carefully distill the nature of the project so that it can be clearly
and succinctly communicated (though there is no size limit for the indi-
vidual page!). Given the high-level nature of the document, and its abil-
ity to communicate the essence of the project to a range of stakeholders,
it is usually appropriate to share it with all relevant stakeholders of the
project.
The contents of a Project Charter can be tailored to fit the specific
requirements of an individual project, but at a minimum we suggest the
following are included:
Project Title: An informative yet concise title which explains the main
purpose of the project. It is strongly recommended that this does not
exceed a single sentence, and should not include acronyms (unless they
are extremely obvious or widely used in the focal operations).
Project Owner: Who is the ultimate owner of the project? Typically,
the key stakeholder in the project, this is the individual who champions
the entire project, and to whom success or failure is most likely to be
attributed.
Objectives and Scope: The statement of objectives explains the key
accomplishments that are expected to be achieved by the project. In
turn, this is contextualized by the scope of the project—highlighting
what is within the remit of the project and (perhaps more importantly),
what is outside of this remit.
Enablers: A statement of the principal resources that have been
­committed to support its conduct.
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19

Project Team & Roles: The names (and perhaps photographs) of the
principal contributors to the project, and a statement as to their pri-
mary role within the project. Importantly this is not their job title or
other organizational identifier, it is essential that this role reflects what
the individual is expected to contribute to the project.
Key Deliverables: A numbered list of the main deliverables to be
achieved in the project that will satisfy to the statement of objectives
(above).
Monitoring & Reporting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): A list of
measures (KPIs) derived from the key deliverables that demonstrate
whether the project is progressing towards achieving its objectives. Note
that temporal performance is measured by the supporting Gantt chart,
and so may not need an explicit statement within this component.
Summary Gantt Chart: A high-level overview of the principal activ-
ities to be undertaken over the duration of the project, with a clear
statement of task ownership for overall accountability. Elicitation of the
duration and ordering of events can be achieved through the application
of Project Network Diagrams (See §2.2), though to promote simplic-
ity in communication we do not suggest these are included within the
Project Charter. In the execution of the project it is likely that Gantt
charts with far more detail will be needed; hence this summary should
‘roll-up’ the detail into the main activities for a simplified and easy-to-
view overview of the project.
Version Control Identifier: It is important that the initial Project
Charter is retained as a baseline document for subsequent evaluation,
but additional versions should be developed as the project progresses
to maintain an up-to-date overview of the entire project. A plan for
scheduled updates of the document should be decided at project ini-
tiation, and a sensible means of communicating the version should be
employed.

2.3.2 The RACI Matrix

Having defined the fundamental nature of the project through the

Project Charter, attention is now needed in terms of how the project
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D. Eyers and M. Naim

will be executed. Projects typically require the involvement of a mul-

titude of people, each contributing different skills, and each with dif-
ferent responsibilities in terms of the successful outcome(s). Whilst the
Project Owner might be the key stakeholder, and the Project Manager
responsible for overseeing the successful coordination of work, with so
many activities being undertaken in non-trivial projects it is unreason-
able to expect either role to be held solely responsible for every activity.
Likewise, as work is delegated to project members, it becomes essential
for them to understand what their responsibilities are, and who can help
them in their work. What is needed is a carefully developed allocation
of responsibilities, and this is quite easily achieved by employing the
RACI technique for every project activity.
RACI is an acronym of four components:
Responsible: Who is required to do the work that satisfies the activity?
For larger tasks multiple people may be involved in the conduct of the
work, but ultimately one individual name should be assigned as respon-
sible for the work. If the work is not done, or it is done badly, this is the
person who will be able to explain why this is the case.
Accountable: Who is ultimately answerable for the achievement of the
work? This is not the person who is responsible for doing the work but
is the person who warrants the completed work as having been done to
an acceptable standard.
Consulted: Who should be consulted as work progresses, particularly
in terms of decisions to be made or actions to be taken? There may be
multiple individuals consulted for any given activity, and these are typi-
cally experts who understand the work being undertaken.
Informed: Who should be kept informed of the progress of work?
There may be multiple individuals who need to be apprised of the activ-
ity being undertaken, particularly where decisions have been taken
which may affect other activities of the project.
It is common practice to present the RACI analysis in the form of
a matrix, and an example extract is shown in Fig. 2.2. This provides a
useful overview that all project members can refer to and can also be
used to help understand whether roles have been misaligned. For exam-
ple, where an individual is ‘responsible’ for many activities, are they
overloaded with work? Or if an individual is accountable for many
 2  Project Management for Effective Operations Management    
21

Project Activities Project Team

Choi, C. Jones, A. Singh, I. Chen, X. Harris, S.
Identify feasible
I R A C
technical solutions
Evaluate budget
I R A C
constraints
Identify top 3
R C C A I
solutions
Prepare proposal for
C I A R C
customer
Present proposal to
C I A I R
customer

Fig. 2.2  Extract from example RACI matrix

activities, but responsible for none, do they have the correct influence
and involvement in the project? Carefully considering the overall matrix
is therefore a useful activity for the project manager to ensure roles have
been appropriately assigned.
Effective monitoring and continual reviewing of the RACI allocation
is essential over the duration of the project. Should individuals perform
poorly or leave the project the management team will need to reassign
their work to other named individuals, and carefully check the revised
role allocations do not introduce new problems for the project.

2.3.3 The Black–Red–Amber–Green (BRAG) Approach

to Project Monitoring & Control

The third component of the toolkit provides a useful visual-management

approach to the monitoring of project progress. During the execution
of the project a multitude of different activities will be undertaken, with
several possible relationships between activities. Some activities will be
wholly independent, conducted in isolation of everything else happen-
ing in the project. More likely many activities will have a precedence
relationship, with work only starting when prior activities have been
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D. Eyers and M. Naim

completed. Finally, some activities will occur concurrently (sometimes

termed ‘in parallel’), with work being undertaken on multiple activities
at the same time. To effectively manage the project there is a need to
know the state of all activities at any given time, for which we recom-
mend the application of the BRAG technique.
Using BRAG project managers report a single colour status for
every activity in the project plan, including those which have yet to
commence. This is typically done through annotation of the Project
Charter’s Gantt chart, providing a visual overview of how each activity
in the project is progressing.
Black: The activity is not scheduled to start yet, and it has not started.
Based on other activities in the project, there is currently no reason to
expect any issues with this activity. Importantly this is not a positive sta-
tus statement, simply an acknowledgement that nothing is foreseen for
this yet-to-be commenced activity.
Red: There are major problems with this activity, and serious reme-
dial action is needed. This is the highest level of problem and is likely
to need extensive consultation with principal stakeholders on an urgent
basis. This may be because of one or more of the following: (i) major
overspend relative to expected budget, (ii) significant quality defects in
the likely deliverable, and (iii) major delays relative to expected plan.
Amber: There are potentially problems looming, and there may be the
need for corrective action to be taken to ensure these do not develop.
Depending on the activity this may need consultation with princi-
pal stakeholders or may be correctable within the scope of the Project
Manager’s authority. The amber rating may arise because of one or more
of the following exceeding expected tolerances: (i) overspend relative
to expected budget, (ii) quality defects in the final deliverable, and (iii)
some minor delay relative to the expected plan.
Green: The activity is progressing according to plan or is complete.
There are currently no problems being experienced or foreseen for this
activity.
Whilst the BRAG approach will help managers quickly identify
problem activities within the project, the interdependence between
activities necessitates project managers also monitor the project ‘as a
whole’ rather than a series of independent traffic lights. BRAG treats all
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23

activities equally; however should an important activity fail to deliver, or

significant change be required to the project as a whole, the magnitude
of the problem may not be readily evidence through this approach.

2.4 Practical Application

In this section we provide a practical example of how the techniques
prescribed in this chapter have been employed by the authors in the
successful management of a practical operations management problem,
and some practical insights that can be gained through this example.

2.4.1 Background

Every year the organizers of the International Symposium on Logistics

(ISL) hold a conference at which academics and practitioners meet to
present and discuss their latest research. In July 2017 the conference was
held in Ljubljana (Slovenia), attracting 95 delegates with 88 research
papers presented over two days. It is a commonplace for academic con-
ferences to partner with appropriate scholarly journals to disseminate
some of the best studies beyond the conference delegates and to the
wider research and practice community. ISL enjoys a partnership with
the International Journal of Logistics Management (IJLM), and we were
asked by ISL and IJLM management to deliver a Special Issue of the
Journal, featuring extended versions of some of the best relevant papers
at the conference.
Although this project concerns the delivery of an ‘academic’ publi-
cation, the practical challenges are consistent with any other project in
the production or service sectors. As editors, we needed to coordinate
both our own work, but also that of the contributing authors (CA’s) to
deliver a quality product the ISL and IJLM management.
At the outset we needed to work with the uncertainties consistent
with project management, particularly around people. We didn’t know
who would be the CA’s, and so we had to carefully consider how to
identify the best work to invite. Ideally once invited the CA would both
24    
D. Eyers and M. Naim

accept the invitation and produce a high-quality submission, but nei-

ther was guaranteed. To compound the problem until we had manu-
scripts from CA’s we didn’t know which external academics might be
called upon to provide rigorous individual peer-review of submissions
(and, of course, whether they would accept the invitation and complete
the work). What we did know for certain is that we had one year to
deliver the project, and that no previous ISL Special Issue had achieved
this timetable. We also knew that our financial budget was zero, mean-
ing that we could not buy-in resources to contribute to the project. The
only way to deliver this project would be through effective management
that had a low administrative overhead, supporting the application of
the three tools described in the previous section.

2.4.2 The Project Charter

The overall aim of this project was to deliver a high-quality Special

Issue for IJLM by 30 June 2018. Working backwards from this require-
ment the editorial team brainstormed all the likely activities that would
need to be performed. Through this approach we identified gaps in our
knowledge around some of the project requirements and the scope of
our work, leading to follow-up discussions with IJLM management.
Once this was complete we were able to construct a Project Charter for
the work, and this was maintained through incremental versioning as
the project progressed. Figure 2.3 shows an iteration of the project char-
ter, which was stored online and shared between all relevant stakehold-
ers for their consideration as the project progressed.

2.4.3 Defining a RACI Matrix

On commencing the project, a RACI matrix was created to formalize

responsibilities for each of the principal activities of the project. Whilst
the allocation of work (i.e. the ‘responsible’ element) was relatively
straightforward, in a project with stakeholders in various universities
and publishing organizations it becomes more difficult to identify who
should be ‘consulted’ and ‘informed’. Such problems are common for
project managers; either they risk overloading their stakeholders with
 2  Project Management for Effective Operations Management    
25

Fig. 2.3  Project Charter for IJLM special issue

reporting information that is unnecessary, or alternatively do not engage

in adequate communication and so important notifications are missed.
Within this project we struck a reasonable balance, but on reflection
more clearly exploring the communication expectations for those in the
‘consulted’ and ‘informed’ categories in advance of the project would
have been beneficial to ensure optimal reporting was achieved.

2.4.4 Applying BRAG

The BRAG technique worked extremely well for this project, combining
simplicity and effectiveness to communicate the status of each project
activity. At regular project update meetings, we reviewed each of the pro-
ject activities in terms of its completeness, any problems faced, and any
potential for delay or defects in the quality of deliverable. Based on these
evaluations we annotated the Project Charter activities with the appro-
priate colour classifications, and discussed remedial actions needed to
26    
D. Eyers and M. Naim

overcome problems. Fortunately, very few activities were deemed particu-

larly problematic over the lifetime of the project, however this approach
was useful in highlighting those which were deviating from expectation
and encouraging interventions from the project management team.

2.5 Conclusion
This chapter has explored the fundamental principles and terminologies
of project management that are relevant to contemporary operations
management. Building on these foundations we have explored three
useful project management tools that are conceptually simple, easily
communicated, and enjoy a minimal administrative overhead. We sug-
gest these characteristics make the tools ideal for application within gen-
eral operations management projects, and through a real-world example
highlight how these may be employed in practice.

2.6 Further Reading

Within this Chapter we have focused on some key aspects of Project
Management in an Operations Management context, however this is a
large and complex topic. We recommend the following texts to compli-
ment and extend our work:

• Cagliano et al. (2015) explore risk management in a project man-

agement context and provide a useful overview of the principal
approaches that can be taken.
• Lewis (1998) provides an excellent emphasis on systems thinking to
provide a holistic approach within the project management context.
• Means and Adams (2005) provide a useful chapter on focusing on
Project Charter Work Sessions, which can be valuable in eliciting the
required information to complete this important document.
• Ochieng et al. (2017) is a great example of applied project man-
agement, focusing on the practical challenges arising in large-scale
projects.
 2  Project Management for Effective Operations Management    
27

References
Axelos. (2017). Managing successful projects with PRINCE2 (2017 ed.).
Norwich: TSO (The Stationery Office).
Cagliano, A. C., Grimaldi, S., & Rafele, C. (2015). Choosing project risk
techniques: A theoretical framework. Journal of Risk Research, 18(2),
232–248.
Gido, J., Clements, J., & Baker, R. (2017). Successful project management (7th
ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2017). Project management: The managerial pro-
cess. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lewis, J. P. (1998). Mastering project management. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Maylor, H. (2010). Project management (4th ed.). London: Financial Times
Prentice Hall.
Means, J., & Adams, T. 2005. Facilitating the project lifecycle: The skills and tools
to accelerate progress for project managers, facilitators, and six sigma project
teams. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (See Chapter 10 for Project Charter Work
Sessions).
Ochieng, E., Price, A., & Moore, D. (2017). Major infrastructure projects:
Planning for delivery. London: Palgrave Macmillan.