Level 6

Certificate
in
Project Management

Ing. Norman Zammit

 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Identification
Section 1.2 of Unit

 Your Learning Outcome:

Be able to analyse business objectives to identify

potential projects, their feasibility and the
methodologies which may be used to manage
projects.
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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Agenda for the Section 1.2 of Unit

 What is project identification?

 Project identification purpose and use
 Project identification process
 Criteria to steer selection of projects
 Alternative project cost-benefit analyses

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Taking Project Ideas Evaluation to the Next Level

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

What does Project Identification mean?

 Project identification is a repeatable process for documenting, validating,
ranking and approving candidate projects within an organization (Project
Management, 2019)

 The aim of this process is as follows:

 Validate the business reasons for each candidate project
 Provide the base information for more informed financial commitments to projects
 Establish a more objective ranking of candidate projects
 Allow a more effective matching of skilled resources to the right project
 Avoid over-allocating limited skilled resources
 Anticipate future human resource quantities and competences
 Provide a valid basis for staff training
 Make Project Initiation faster and more efficient

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Identification
 Project identification precedes project initiation
 Recognizes and identifies a need, problem or opportunity
 Examine and reconcile business
 requirements
 resources
 capacities
 and capabilities available for a project
 Various ways for identification
 Organization strategic planning
 Response to unexpected event
 Group organized to address a need
 Prioritize and select project with greatest need

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Identification & Selection Process 1/3

 Step 1: Identify potential project
 Step 2: Determine selection criteria
 Step 3: Prioritize and rank potential projects
 Step 4: Decide and select project for development

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Identification & Selection Process 2/3

 Certify Business Case: focuses first on the evaluation of all candidate
project information that has been gathered or provided by the
organization and then examine the business case and decide whether to
accept or reject a project candidate – EXPERT JUDGEMENT

 Rank Candidate Projects: all candidate projects should be objectively

ranked in order of significance. The ranking criteria should include:
 Target due dates
 Impact on the total business
 Impact on the technology architecture
 Impact on other applications
 Project size, cost and duration
 Project risk

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Identification & Selection Process 3/3

 Evaluate Resources: review all company resources that are available for
project assignment and evaluate capabilities and capacities of these
resources
 Determine Resource Needs: identify anticipated requirements for
quantities and capabilities of future resources
 The identification of critical training needs
 A basis for employment opportunities
 Criteria for contract personal
 Approve Project includes:
 Select project: Based on the information provided by the ranking process, the Core
Process Owners of the business will authorize a specific project for initiation. This
project should now be removed as a Candidate Project
 Assign resources: Even though a project has been selected, it does not become an
“active” project until resources are approved and deployed against it

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Selection Criteria
 This process is intended for proposed projects that:
 Are of significant size and will require a significant amount of time to
complete
 Must be tightly coordinated with other active projects
 Will use new or emerging technology
 Will require a new work process
 Are intended for a new customer or unproven market
 Will impact numerous departments or organizations
 Are highly critical to the success of the business
 Are a known high risk

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

How to Prioritize Projects?

 Business value:
 How will this project impact business?
 Urgency and importance
 An important project brings value to your business, whether you feel its impact today or
years down the road
 An urgent project requires immediate attention to stay on track or keep business going
 Time management matrix
 Performance
 inputs such as scope, cost and time
vs.
 outputs such as benefits, impact and goals)
 People and resources
 Who are the best people to execute the project?

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Costs & Benefits: A Balance?

Costs Benefits
Planning a “straight jacket” Plan as a working tool
Focus on precision Focus on accuracy
Generation of data Provision of information
Archiving of data Organisational Learning

Misuse of Planning Good Use of Planning

 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Cost-Benefit Analysis Definition and Use

 A simple technique that is used to create non-critical financial
decisions (involves adding the benefits of a particular action
then providing a comparison with the associated costs)
 Applicable in situations like evaluating a new project,
assessment of any change initiative and determining the
feasibility of different purchases
 Lists down the project expenses as well as evident benefits
before calculating the Return on Investment (ROI), net
representative value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR)

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Cost-Benefit Analysis Process

 Project goals and objectives
 Note alternatives list stakeholders
 Choose which metrics to use
 Determine the outcome of costs and benefits
 Find the net present value of the product
 Do sensitivity analysis
 Make decisions

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

How to Conduct a Cost-Benefit Analysis?

 Determine costs
 Calculate benefits
 Compare alternatives
 Report and plan action

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Initiation Process 1/2

Initiating processes for small projects or part of a larger project include:
 Clarification of the project purpose and justification
 Stakeholder – needs analysis
 User requirements analysis
 Concept development and scope definition
 Determination of the broad scope
 Establishment of clear and shared project objectives
 Establishment of project governance structures
 Documentation of this process as the project proposal

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Initiation Process 2/2

 Determines the viability of the project
 Sequential (desired) vs. iterative process (how it actually happens)
 Agreement amongst all stakeholders is essential
 Skipping the project initiation phase is one of the reasons that most of the
projects fail
 In many cases the objectives such as ‘on time’ and ‘on budget’ are
emphasized at the expense of more important objectives, such as
functionality or quality objectives
 Time cost and quality (including proper functionality) must be constantly
balanced. This is known as the Iron Triangle.

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Proposal
Key to remember:
Problem Make an impact from the start of your project proposal. The problem
needs to be of effective impact on the organisation.
- People buy from people!! Interact with the project sponsor to get better chance of
project proposal acceptance. Lobby the decision makers about your project.Executive
Summary
Vision Tying your project into the organisational strategy and vision to give
- Clarity inimportance.
our communication. You have limited time in ensuring your project
captures the attention and convinces the sponsors in accepting and funding your
project.
Benefits Specifics of the achievements, measurable.

Deliverables a further breakdown of what and how the project will deliver.

Success Criteria SMART success criteria gives assurance.

Deadlines/Plan/Approach how and when will the success criteria

and deliverables will be met.

Cost/Budget funding needed 18

 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Purpose
 The justification and validity of the project needs to be
confirmed before the project starts

 The lack of a sound purpose and clear objectives puts at risk

the success and continual operation of the project

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Justification (1)

 Justification of the project in relation (coherent alignment) to

the organisation’s strategic plans
 Priority of the project in relation to other projects that might
be competing for funds or resources
 Line authority (sign-off) regarding project expenditure
 Requirements for project reporting
 Escalation procedure if risk factors are triggered

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Justification (2)

 If there are any other related or dependent projects/work

being undertaken that might have an impact on your project
 If any decisions have already been made or any work has
already been done in relation to your project
 If there are any ethical considerations
 The benefits that the sponsor hopes to achieve by the project

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Justification (3)

 Uncertainty & fear of unknown future

 Wasted resources – repeated effort
 Lost income through late project delivery: reduced return on
investment
 Project failure rate
 Lack of motivation among workers
 Miscalculated economic impact
 Undermined competitiveness
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Concept Development
 At onset of a project, ideas are brought together into a
concept
 Organisations feature different concept development systems
 Business incubators
 Sponsored academic research
 Customer research
 Ideas will be screened, or filtered through different
approaches:
 Marketability assessment;
 Financial appraisal – rates of return?
 Strategic assessment – fit with corporate strategy
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Impact of Concept Planning

Concept
2
4
Scope

Product Process

Process Design Phase

 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Concept Development – Sources, Process

& Output
Ideas Increasing Ideas Decreasing

Staff
Recycle Ideas Licence use
Competition
Sell Idea
Customers
New Products
Suppliers
New Business
R&D
time
Concept Product
Development Delivery
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Creativity is Paramount
 Augment creativity by:
 Allowing time and space for people to explore;

 Protecting idea ownership;

 Encouraging rapid trials (prototyping) to evaluate how

ideas work;

 Having senior executives act as project champions;

 Encouraging a rapid development process to push ideas

to fruition
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Projects Defined
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Features
 Clearly defined beginning and end – ACHIEVEMENT of an
agreed objective / deliverable

 Objectives and activities broken down to manageable sizes

It is about:
 people & teams: responsibility shared by different people in
different roles
 Scope / planning / balancing / controlling
 Time
 Quality
 Cost
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Managing Strategy & Scope

 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

A New Meaning to Strategy?

 Strategy is what an organisation desires for a direction: from

what it is today to what it wants to be in the future

 Direction involves a series of linked projects to deliver the

strategy

 Project personnel contribute to strategy formulation

 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Projects & Strategy

 Traditional Approach  Strategic Approach
Organisational Organisational
Strategy Strategy

Project Project
Management Management
 Weak link between project &  Coherent, coordinated, focused,
organisational strategy: lack of strategy-driven, contributes to
coordination between projects, strategy formation &
inevitable resource conflicts, deployment. Strategic
project managers “minimise competence in project
negative potential of projects” management leads to
competitive advantage
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Projects & Strategy

Projects deliver the strategy of the organisation:

 Strategic decisions provide the guiding principles for project
related decisions
 The ability to carry out projects is a core competence: a
strategic capability
 Must relate to both for direct-revenue earning projects as
well as internal change projects
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Projects & Strategy: Typical Issues

 Isolation haunts project managers often and may lead to

striping off any necessary strategic guidance
 Conflicts often call for a strategic level solution
 Often the result of:
 Organisational strategy excludes the role of projects in
delivery of organisational objectives
 Project Management not considered as a strategic
capability
 Organisation lacks systematic coordination of resources
 Project goals not aligned with organisational goals
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Proposal
This document should contain the following:
 Project Purpose
 Background and Strategic Context
 Priority and other related projects
 Project Objectives
 Broad Scope including key deliverables, constraints, assumptions
 Project Governance
 Key Stakeholders
 Preliminary Schedule (estimated timeframe/milestones)
 Preliminary resources and cost estimates
 Preliminary Risk Assessment

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Planning Scope
What is the difference between Scope and Purpose

As nouns the difference between scope and purpose

 Scope is the breadth, depth or reach of a subject; a domain
 While purpose is an object to be reached; a target; an aim; a
goal.

As verbs the difference between scope and purpose

 Scope is to perform a cursory investigation, as to scope out
 While purpose is have set as one's purpose; resolve to
accomplish; intend; plan.
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Planning Scope: Defining the Project

 Calls for creativity

 Formalisation of ideas and group them in a structure so that
“investment” is accepted and committed to a formal project
 Bringing Project Manager to the Boardroom is critical
 Planning process involves two approaches:
 Client driven – “we have a problem, how will you
reduce this”
 Producer driven – “I have an idea – how can we
develop this”
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

WHAT?
Why Define a Project?

 The Mission statement for a project

 A statement of business need that the project must address;
 Derived from business strategy, featuring:
 a problem to be solved,
 an opportunity to be exploited;
 a benefit to be obtained;
 the elimination of an inefficiency
 Keeps efforts and resources aligned to “ONE MISSION”
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

HOW?

Defining the Scope of a Project?

 An initial high-level description of how a goal is to be
achieved
 Describes the work that must be done to deliver a
product with the specified features and functions.
 Includes what the project:
 Involves;
 Does NOT involve
 Identifies accurate and well defined project BOUNDRIES
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Defining Scope
Quality
 A vital process within Project
Management;
 The first stage involves
making an overview of the
project system and scope;
Scope Organisation Time
 Decisions made at this stage
will significantly impact the
remainder of the project.
 Errors made now will be very
costly to fix at a later stage of
Cost
the project
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Broad Scope

 The scope is what the project contains or delivers (i.e. the products or
services)
 Think about the BIG PICTURE first - concentrate on the major deliverables
and not to get bogged down with detail
 Agree on what is OUT OF SCOPE and define what IN SCOPE is as
stakeholders will often have different ideas regarding what is supposed to
be IN the project and what IS NOT
 Examples of areas that could be examined and clarified include:
 The type of deliverables that are in scope and out of scope
 The major life-cycle processes that are in scope and out of scope
 The types of data that are in scope and out of scope
 The data sources that are in scope or out of scope
 The organisations that are in scope and out of scope
 The major functionality that is in scope and out of scope

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Scope Creeps

How to avoid

- Define upfront
- Log changes
- Rebaseline – the project schedule/plan and agree with
stakeholders
- Request – funding and resources and get approval
- Watch for signs – monitor your team
- Set priorities – in the event of changes
- Avoid traps – “ow come on it takes nothing”
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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Objectives
 The success of your project will be defined by how well you meet your
objectives
 The more explicitly you state your objectives at the outset, the less
disagreement there will be at the end about whether you have met them
 Remember that at this early stage of the project, there are still many
“unknown factors”
 Be prepared to revise your objectives as you gather more information
about what you need to achieve
 In project management we are constantly juggling time, cost and quality
and we refer to the relationship between time, cost and quality as the
TCQ triangle or the triple constraint (also known as the Sanity Triangle)

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Writing Project Objectives

 Project objectives are concrete statements that describe what the project is trying
to achieve.
 Objectives should be developed for time, cost, quality (and functionality) and
should:
 Be aligned to business objectives
 Be measurable
 Be achievable
 Be consistent
 Be readily understandable
 Be few in number
 Have the full support and commitment of senior management, key
stakeholders, project sponsor and users

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Smart Objective
 A well-worded objective is SMART
 Specific
 Measurable
 Agreed
 Realistic
 Time-framed

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Specific Objective
 States exactly what the project is to accomplish
 Phrased using action words (such as “design”, “build”,
“implement”)
 Limited to those essential elements of the project that
communicate the purpose of the project
 and the outcome expected

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Measurable and Agreed Objective

Measurable:
 If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it
 In the broadest sense, the whole objective is a measure of the project; if
the objective is accomplished, the project is a success
 Build several short-term or small measurements into the objective
 Watch out for words that can be misinterpreted such as improve,
increase, reduce customer satisfaction, etc.
Attainable:
 Each objective has the full support and commitment of senior
management, the project sponsor and users.

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Realistic Objective

 Considering all the other demands and projects in my life, is it

doable even if it is a strech goal?
 The learning curve is not a vertical slope
 The skills needed to do the work are available
 The project fits with the overall strategy and goals of the
organization

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Time-framed Objective

 Objectives must be achieved within a definite

timescale/deadline
 Timescales should be set in consultation with the objective
holder
 To make an impact, timescales need to be set down in specific
terms no matter how far distant they are

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Clarifying Objectives

 Regardless of whether you have been provided with the

objectives for your project or you have written them
yourselves, you need to clarify them by asking the following:
 Are the objectives clear?
 What other questions need to be asked?
 Who would have the information?
 How will you best obtain the information you need to
clarify the objectives?

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Managing Expectations - Governance

 Successful management of your project depends upon how well you
manage the relationship of the people and structures that govern and
influence your project
 It is not uncommon in projects for influential stakeholder groups to
assume control beyond their level of designated authority, resulting in
negative consequences for the governance of the project
 It is also not uncommon for key stakeholders to change during the project
and for existing stakeholders to change their minds about important
issues
 Managing expectations requires constant communication with key
stakeholders to ensure that there are no nasty surprises

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

User Requirements – Key Stakeholders

 This step may not be needed if your project requirements are clear and
straightforward
 The user requirements of the project must be defined and documented
 Approval and confirmation must be obtained before the project can
proceed. To obtain agreement about needs:
 Separate needs from wants
 Group the needs that are similar
 Prioritise needs (e.g. essential, nice to have)
 Identify any conflicting needs
 Negotiate agreement between stakeholders with conflicting needs

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Generating and Evaluating Options

 This step may be necessary if your project is not well-defined
 When generating alternatives:
 Identify what has already been decided about the project
 Brainstorm/list all the possible options
 Use the big picture approach – consider
 Not doing the project
 Redefining it
 Different forms of procurement
 Shortlist the options that meet the objectives for closer evaluation
 Sort the options into positive, interesting and negative
 For each positive/interesting option, ask:
 What will satisfy the needs?
 How should it be delivered?
 Who will deliver it?
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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Evaluation of Options/Alternatives

 The options or alternatives for the delivery of the project should then be
evaluated against the:
 project objectives, in terms of time, cost and quality
 risks involved
 extent to which the required scope of the project is addressed.
 the impact of the options or alternatives on the various stakeholders

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Risks Management
A risk is anything that could potentially impact your project’s timeline,
performance or budget. Risks are potentialities, and in a project management
context, if they become realities, they then become classified as “issues” that
must be addressed. So risk management, then, is the process of identifying,
categorizing, prioritizing and planning for risks before they become issues.

6 Steps in the Risk Management Process

 Identify
 Analyse – how likely
 Prioritise
 Assign an owner
 Respond to risk – plan to mitigate
 Monitor 54
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Proposal
 This is the end of the Initiation Process for the project as a whole as
defines what your project is

 You should have reached agreement with your key stakeholders about:
 the project objectives (time, cost and quality or functionality)
 the exact nature of the product of the project
 who will deliver it
 constraints, assumptions and preliminary risks
 Turner lists the objectives of the Project Proposal (or Project Definition Report) as being
to:
 provide sufficient definition, including costs and benefits, to allow the business to
commit resources to the next phase
 provide a basis for the next phase
 provide senior management with an overview of the project’s priority alongside day-to-
day operations and other projects
 communicate the project’s requirements through the business
 define the commitment of the business to the project (Turner 1993)
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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Proposal
Project Proposal should contain:
■ Project Purpose
 Briefly describes why the project is being undertaken
■ Background and Strategic Context
 Describes the background and context for the project, including how it
relates to the key strategic plans
■ Priority and other related projects
■ Project Objectives
 Scope/quality/performance/cost/time objectives
■ Broad Scope
 Boundaries
 Constraints and Assumptions
 Deliverables
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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Proposal
Potential pitfalls
Four basic reasons why project proposals get rejected:

•Poorly defined proposal

•Proposal not aligned with organizational goals
•Project benefits not clearly and credibly defined
•Ineffective project proposal presentation

In essence, certain projects fail to receive the green light, not because
they’re bad projects per se but because the proposal lacked clarity and
persuasiveness.

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Proposal
Data and research
You need facts:

Figures, graphs, and charts to substantiate your proposal and justify the
project’s existence.

Research past projects, both successful and unsuccessful because you’ll need
as much hard data, evidence, and examples as you can provide to craft a
convincing proposal.

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Project Proposal
Appendix.
Any information not included in the actual proposal should be in the appendix,
such as materials and resources that team members and stakeholders can use
to learn more about the project.

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 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

Some Project Documents

Documentation is a key aspect of any project. Each phase of a project needs
related documentation. Some of the key project documents are as follows:
 Project Proposal
 Project Management Plan
 Project Charter
 Project Schedule
 Stakeholder Register
 Risk Register
 Work Performance Reports
 Work Breakdown Structure

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Project Charter vs. Project Proposal

 The proposal takes place in the initiating phase where the charter takes
place in the planning phase
 The owner of project charter is project manager but the owner of project
proposal is project director
 Project charter is created once the proposal is approved
 The Proposal is created once an idea is conceived

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The Project Brief Document 1/2

 Defines the project at the early stages

 A high level document setting out:

 Project Objectives
 Project Scope
 Outline Project Deliverables and/or Desired Outcomes
 Any Exclusions
 Constraints
 Interfaces
 LO1.2 Certificate in Project Management

The Project Brief Document 2/2

 Supported by:
 Outline Business Case
 Project Support Description
 Reasons for Solution Selection
 Customer’s Quality Expectations
 Acceptance Criteria
 Known Risks
 Outline Project Plan