PROJECT MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCING THE TOPIC

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Project: a specific and temporary activity with a start and end date, clear goals, defined
responsibilities, and budget

Project Management: using modern management techniques to carry out and complete
a project from start to finish in order to achieve pre-set targets of quality, time, and cost
EXAMPLES OF PROJECTS

 Setting up new IT system

 Relocating company operations
 Installing new machinery
 Marketing new products in another country
 Building a factory
 Matrix structure used for this
 Leader must manage 4 basic elements
i. Resources
ii. Time
iii. Money
iv. Scope (size and scale)
KEY ELEMENTS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

 Define project carefully, set clear objectives

 Divide project into manageable tasks and activities
 Control project at every stage, check time limits are kept
 Giving each team member a clear role
 Provide controls over quality issues and risks
IMPACTS OF PROJECT FAILURE

 Penalty payments
 Bad publicity
 Loss of future contracts
CAUSES OF PROJECT FAILURES

 Poor planning
 Project specification keep changing during the course of the project
 Scope of the project becomes outdated
 Poor management
 Inadequate or no resources
 Senior management not interested in seeing project through
 Project team technically incompetent
 Poor communication
 Customers not involved in planning and development process

 Examples: BBC and Airbus (pg 404)

PLANNING OPERATIONS

 Efficient firms will always aim to use their resources as intensively as possible and
avoid wasted time and idle assets

 e.g. the builder only wants to employ specialist staff on a subcontract basis when the
job is ready for their particular skills.
He also wants supplies to arrive JIT.
Specialist equipment often hired

 Utilize Critical Path Analysis to get tasks in order

HOMEWORK
ACTIVITY 27.1 (Q1-3) + NOTES
CRITICAL PATH ANALYSIS

“A planning technique that identifies all tasks in a project, puts them in the correct
sequence and allows for the identification of the critical path”

 Indicates the shortest possible time for project completion

 Activities to be completed to achieve the shortest time make up the critical path
STEPS OF USING CPA

1. Identify objective of project

2. Put tasks that make up the project in the right sequence and draw network diagram
3. Add durations of each activity
4. Identify the critical path – those activities must be finished on time for the project to
be finished in shortest time possible
5. Use the network as a control tool when problems occur during the project
NETWORK DIAGRAM

“The diagram used in critical path analysis that shows the logical sequence of activities
and the logical dependencies between them – so the critical path can be identified”

Annotations
 An arrow indicates each activity
 An activity takes up time and resources
 A node (circle) indicates the end of each activity
 Critical activities are indicated with pairs of short parallel lines
NOW LOOK AT FIG 27.1
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OBJECTIVE: See if new machine can be installed and staff trained to operate it within 3 weeks
 Two activities can occur simultaneously from one node
 Critical activities need to be completed in the time limit to keep project on time
 Other activities (uncritical ones) can have spare time – aka float time