Case Study Information:

ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects

Australian College of Business Intelligence

Version: 22.0

Date Modified: July2022

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Introduction

1A. Using this case study

For the purpose of completing your assessment for unit ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects, you are to refer to the case study provided below on AnimeCoup Pty Ltd.

Please note: AnimeCoup Pty Ltd is a fictional business developed for the purpose of this assessment.

Case Study Information

The managing director of AnimeCoup Pty Ltd, Mr Jeremy Chu, has been in animation industry and games development for the past 12 years. Mr. Chu was one of the few Australian anime developers who were involved in the development of the famous 'big feet' project.

Mr. Chu single-handedly developed a computer game called 'Spitronix' which generated more than 3 million dollars in revenue in 2010. Mr. Chu has now 3 software developers, 2 games designers, 2 graphics designers, and 1 marketing person in his Sydney office.

In recent years, Mr. Chu noticed that he was losing his market share to a simple game such as CandyCrush and other simpler games. Mr. Chu is a bit confused because these games look much simpler and easier to design and program, yet they are grossing far more revenue.

His initial investigation revealed that the other games are now freely distributed on many of the mobile platforms; and their revenue is mostly from advertisements. Their marketing is also heavily based on social media including Facebook and other platforms.

Mr. Chu was very keen to launch his own new games for mobile platforms with strong marketing over the social media. He is aware that this new approach may change his normal operational procedures, however he is willing to take the challenge. Mr. Chu has allocated $500,000 and 3 months for the project.

To this aim, Mr. Chu assigned you as the project coordinator for the new venture.

Your tasks are to:

Identify the games genre in relation to the mobile market

Propose a new game for Mr. Chu

Lead the development of the computer game

Recruit sub-contractors for games programming

Recruit sub-contractors for social media marketing

Oversees the reporting and communications

Oversees the handover and training.

Report to Mr. Chu on the project progress

You are writing a report for Mr Chu as part of the tasks for this project. Refer to the assessment task for the instructions in order to complete the report.

Learner guide

ICTPMG617 - Plan and direct complex ICT projects

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 4

Chapter 1: Identify planning needs ..5

1.1 Identify organisations need for required complex ICT project... 6

1.2 Identify projects strategic context and requirements................................................. 8

1.3 Identify organisations strategic and business plans, and output requirements.. 12

1.4 Identify client requirements and impact of legislation, and industry codes and standards............................................................................................................................... 16

1.5 Conduct a risk management analysis and develop and document a risk-management plan ................................................................................................................................................. 21

Chapter 2. Prepare the ICT project plan ................................................................................... 27

2.1 Define and document specifications, terms of reference and skills required for project.28

2.2 Identify and document project budget according to project requirements.................... 32

2.3 Define, document and secure resources required to support project............................. 38

2.4 Develop and document timelines, schedules and critical path for project...42

2.5 Define and document stakeholder consultation strategy according to organisational requirements ....................................................................................................................... 46

Chapter 3. Assemble the ICT project team and commence work .............................................. 52

3.1 Brief required personnel on project scope and respond to feedback given.................... 52

3.2 Identify and communicate required reporting processes for team members.55

Chapter 4. Manage the IT project ............................................................................................... 62

4.1 Monitor project progress according to project plan requirements................................... 63

4.2 Manage team member performance and confirm that output aligns to key performance indicators identified in project plan................................................................................... 66

4.3 Make required corrections, changes and additions to project plan............................. 69

4.4 Monitor resourcing and make corrections to reflect changing circumstances..................................................................................................................... 73

4.5 Report overall project progress to required personnel................................................ 77

Chapter 5. Wrap up IT project..................................................................................................80

5.1 Finalise the project in line with the project plan ...........................................................81

5.2 Conduct handover to required personnel according to organisational procedures.81

5.3 Debrief project team members on conduct and project outcomes.............................. 88

5.4 Prepare project report and analyse strengths and weaknesses of project plan..................................................................................................................................... 92

Chapter 6. Identify policy and process improvements........................ 95

6.1 Identify and analyse opportunities for organisational learning and required changes to processes and policies generated by project...................................................................... 96

6.2 Determine and document opportunities for future developments following project completion and submit to required personnel................................................................... 98

6.3 Determine and document strategic impact of project and feed into organisations

ongoing strategic planning processes................................................................................. 99

Bibliography:....................................................................................................................... 103

INTRODUCTION

This workbook is about the skills and knowledge required for:

Identify planning needs

Prepare the ICT project plan

Assemble the ICT project team and commence work

Manage the IT project

Wrap up IT project

Identify policy and process improvements

This learner guide will help students to learn about how to identify, plan, control and finalise complex information and communications technology (ICT) projects.

Definition of a Project

There are many written definitions of a project. All of them contain the key elements described above. For those looking for a formal definition of a project, the Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite beginning and end. The end is reached when the projects objectives have been achieved or when the project is terminated because its objectives will not or cannot be met, or when the need for the project no longer exists.

Project Characteristics

When considering whether or not you have a project on your hands, there are some things to keep in mind. First, is it a project or an ongoing operation? Second, if it is a project, who are the stakeholders? And third, what characteristics distinguish this endeavor as a project?

Projects have several characteristics:

Projects are unique.

Projects are temporary in nature and have a definite beginning and ending date.

Projects are completed when the project goals are achieved, or its determined the project is no longer viable.

A successful project is one that meets or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders.

CHAPTER 1: IDENTIFY PLANNING NEEDS

This chapter will help you learn about the following:

Identify organisations need for required complex ICT project

Identify projects strategic context and requirements

Identify organisations strategic and business plans, and output requirements

Strategic Plan vs. Project Plan

A strategic plan is the how of your project. This is different from a project plan, which is focused on the execution or the nitty-gritty of what needs to be done. A project plan includes:

What is required

How it is done

Who does what

When things will happen

Identify client requirements and impact of legislation, and industry codes and standards

Conduct risk management analysis and develop and document risk-management plan

Your strategic plan, on the other hand, is not a task list. It is a high-level plan that identifies the tools and resources youll use to deliver your project on time, on budget, and meet your goals.

1.1 Identify organisations need for required complex ICT project

WHAT IS PROJECT PLANNING?

First, lets clarify what we are talking about. Many people think of the project plan as the project schedule: The list of tasks and dates that tell you what to do when. That schedule is part of your project plan, but its not the only part.

Project planning refers to everything you do to set up your project for success. Its the process you go through to establish the steps required to define your project objectives, clarify the scope of what needs to be done and develop the task list to do it.

The activities in project planning are varied because you have to work out how to achieve your goals. Every project is going to be different as the objectives will be different. Most of the work of planning is thinking about what you need to do to get everything done and putting the structure in place to make that happen.

By structure, we mean the processes and governance to keep everything running smoothly. These are things like the change management process, the budgeting process, how you are going to sign off the deliverables when the time comes, what quality measures are important and things like that.

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND PLANNING

Strategic planning is the process of developing a shared vision of your organizations future and deciding upon the major steps you will take to move the organization in that direction. A strategic analysis is one of the key phases and requirements to the development of any strategic plan.

The strategic planning process determines:

(1) what your organization wants to achieve, usually expressed as strategic objectives and

(2) how you will direct the organization and its resources towards achieving these objectives over the next several years, usually expressed as strategic actions.

Such planning usually requires that decisions have been or are taken about:

Your organizations Vision and Mission.

Whom you will serve your so-called target customer or client group.

Your organizations added value (what marketing people might call your USP or Unique Selling Point).

The kind of programmes, services or products you will develop and offer.

The resources needed to deliver successfully people, money, expertise, relationships, facilities, etc. and a realistic assessment of how much resource will be available over time.

Is strategic planning and analysis only appropriate for whole organization planning?

Strategic planning can be used effectively by whole organizations, by divisions or departments within an organization or by a number of organizations working together on one initiative. Whatever the scale of the plan, it is the Master Plan from which day to day operational plans are derived. having an appropriate analysis of where we are now out of an analysis process is critical.

Why have a strategy?

Having a strategic plan helps to ensure not only that you have long term direction but that your organizations programmes, projects and day-to-day decisions fit in with these long-term interests of your organization. A strategic plan also encourages people to work together towards common aims and to recognise what their organization is all about and how their own efforts however small contribute to achievements at the highest level.

What are the potential benefits of strategic planning?

Strategic planning can help your organization in a number of critical ways:

1. Improved results and confidence. Thinking about your vision of the future, setting of objectives and planning and monitoring accordingly can positively influence organizational performance and can contribute to a greater sense of purpose, progress and accountability.

2. Focus. It is easy to lose all sense of organizational purpose and direction in the pre-occupation of day-to-day management. Good strategic planning forces future thinking and can refocus and re-energise a disorientated organization.

3. Problem solving. Strategic planning focuses on an organizations most critical problems, choices and opportunities.

4. Teamwork: Non-Government Organizations usually involve people throughout the organization in developing their strategic plan. Strategic planning provides an excellent opportunity to build a sense of teamwork, to promote learning, and to build commitment across the organization. As a clear direction develops for the organization, people usually become committed to this direction if they have contributed significantly in forming it.

5. Communication. Board members, staff, funders and other stakeholders are all interested in where the organization is heading and how their contribution will fit. Increasingly funders ask that an organization has a strategic plan in place as a

condition of continued support. This requirement is likely to continue given the shift in emphasis from projects to longer-term relationships.

6. Greater influence. Strategic planning can help an organization provide greater influence over its circumstances and the environment in which it operates, rather than simply responding to an unending series of problems.

OPERATIONAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT

An operational needs assessment identifies and characterizes gaps in existing capabilities that are significant impediments to achieving the mission area objectives. It does so through the application of operational experience in a particular mission/business area, knowledge of related processes and elements involved in conduct of the mission, and knowledge of the mission's objectives and measures of success/effectiveness.

1.2 Identify projects strategic context and requirements

Projects and project management operate in an environment broader than that of the project itself. The project management team must understand this broader contextmanaging the day-to-day activities of the project is necessary for success but not sufficient.

Project context is the environment in which a project operates. It covers both the internal and external environment. Different projects have different contextual issues to deal with therefore is important to understand a projects context.

The PESTLE technique can be used to analyse 6 main components of a project context:

1. Political

This component covers the relationship of the project with external political stakeholders. It may also refer to gaining consensus across an organisations supply chain and its internal departments.

Political factors you have to consider:

Tax policies and other government policies

Elections

Trade reforms

Etc.

2. Economic

This component is concerned with balancing longer-term benefits of a project with the cost of its implementation. For example, funding a large capital project is usually dependent on public funds, e.g. PFI or PPP. Also, long-term projects are more susceptible to the uncertainty around interest rates.

Economic factors you have to consider:

Budget availability

Import and export taxes

Interest rates

Economic growth or recession

Inflation rate

Exchange rate

Minimum wage

3. Sociological

This component is concerned with interaction of the project with its users and understanding the needs of the society.

Social factors you have to consider:

Cultural norms and expectations

Population demographics (age, gender, mobility etc.)

Populations general attitude towards certain issues (health, environment, etc.)

4. Technological

This aspect refers to a greater understanding of the technological specifications surrounding a project. For example, computer related technology advances at a high speed; therefore, implementing a new software system requires thorough consideration of the availability of such systems, as well as the anticipated time by which it becomes out of date.

Technological factors you have to consider:

New technologies that replace older technologies

Technical constraints

Automation

Research and development

5. Legal

This component can refer to health and safety issues or data protection issues, which are legally bound. For example, the nuclear industry has a very high degree of regulatory framework in which it operates. Also, Health and safety of employees under the Health and Safety Act needs to be carefully managed.

Legal factors you have to consider:

Employment law

Health and safety laws

Regulatory frameworks

6. Environmental

This aspect is concerned with the impact of project on the surrounding environment.

Environmental factors you have to consider:

Climate and weather conditions

Geographical location

Natural disasters

Conducting a PESTLE analysis

The steps of a PESTLE analysis are very similar to that of a risk analysis:

Brainstorm

The project manager and the project team should get together in a meeting or a workshop setting to come up with all the possible (and impossible) factors that could affect the project. This step is very important because the more threats and opportunities you identify, the better you can plan your project.

Sort and prioritize

The next step is to sort the factors you have identified into the different PESTLE categories and then sort them by relevance, i.e. importance. Which factors will have the biggest or the least impact on the project?

Determine probability

Now determine which factors have the highest probability of occurring. You should not just concentrate on factors that have a high probability but should also make plans for threats that have a low probability of occurring.

Create action plan

Now that you have completed steps 1-3, you can create an action plan that takes all the factors into account. The action plan should include measures to eliminate or mitigate threats that could cause your project to go off track.

PROJECTS STRATEGIC REQUIREMENTS

The Strategic Business Requirements presents the results of the business strategy, identifies the business processes to be engineered, and identifies target performance measures and objectives.

Following are some of the key strategic requirements:

Business Goals,

Customer Requirements,

Supplier Requirements,

Intermediary Requirements,

Competitive Position,

Major Business Process Model,

Organizational Structure Mapping,

Major Business Process Cost Outline,

Major Business Process Assessment and Selection,

Performance Measures and Targets.

1.3 Identify organisations strategic and business plans, and output requirements

What is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organization's direction in response to a changing environment. It is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, who it serves, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future. Effective strategic planning articulates not only where an organization is going, and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is successful.

What is a Strategic Plan?

A strategic plan is a document used to communicate with the organization the organizations goals, the actions needed to achieve those goals and all of the other critical elements developed during the planning exercise.

The 5 Key Elements of a Strategic Plan

Before we go into the detail of the key elements of a strategic plan, we need to be clear about what exactly a strategic plan is meant to achieve. Essentially, a strategic plan helps you to answer these 4 critical questions:

1. Where do I want to take my business? The destination

2. Where are we right now? The starting point

3. How will we get there? The journey

4. How will I know if Im succeeding? The checkpoints

A good strategic plan will address each of these questions and provide clear answers for readers of the plan. This may include employees, business partners, investors, or other stakeholders. Lets look at the 5 key elements of a strategic plan that will help us to answer those questions:

1. A Vision

No surprises here we need to start off by defining our vision for the organization (the destination). Your vision will help you to:

Bring alignment to your organization. People will unify their efforts towards a common goal, driving increased efficiency

Create goals which are cohesive and focused

Inspire employees, investors and other stakeholders to invest in your business both emotionally and commercially

Creating a vision statement is the obvious starting point for defining your overall vision. But you may also want to consider creating a mission statement too. A mission statement differs from a vision statement as follows:

A vision statement defines where you want to be in the future. A mission statement defines broadly how you will get there (part of your journey).

Many organizations are moving away from separate vision and mission statements, due to the confusion that often surrounds their differences. Instead, you might want to try converting your mission statement into a series of focus areas.

2. Core Values

Values really dont get the credit they deserve! People often see them as a throw-away and vacuous more aimed at marketing the organization than guiding its true internal behaviors. But a well-crafted set of values can be the difference between success and failure in your strategic plan. Core values help you to:

Assess your current state (the starting point) as an honest reflection of what you do well and are proud of

Make better decisions by helping you to rule out courses of action that are not appropriate for your company

Recruit better people who share your beliefs and passions

3. Clearly Defined Outcomes

A strategic plan is nothing without a set of clearly defined outcomes. Visions, missions and focus areas are a great starting point but no-one will take your plan seriously unless you can clearly articulate what steps you are going to take to get there and what success looks like for each of those steps.

Not all of your outcomes will be immediately quantifiable and thats ok (your KPIs below will help you in those cases). But when you define your outcomes, they ought to look something like this:

Action + Detail + Metric + Unit + Deadline

4. Accountability

This is such a small detail, but it is also one of the key elements of a strategic plan that so many organizations fail to implement. A lack of accountability will absolutely destroy your strategy execution. Lacking or confusing accountability results in:

Outcomes not being delivered because no-one knew who was in charge

Conflicting interpretations of what the business should be working on

Increased finger pointing and hearsay when things dont go to plan

No-one taking any satisfaction or pride in the outcomes delivered by their team

You need to define your accountability in your initial strategic plan as a part of defining your journey. Ideally, the people responsible for a particular segment of your plan should also have been critical contributors to the plan itself. Thats the best way to drive engagement and to self-enforce accountability.

5. KPIs

KPIs should relate to how well youre delivering against the components of your mission or focus areas.

What is Strategic Management? What is Strategy Execution?

Strategic management is the comprehensive collection of ongoing activities and processes that organizations use to systematically coordinate and align resources and actions with mission, vision and strategy throughout an organization. Strategic management activities transform the static plan into a system that provides strategic performance feedback to decision making and enables the plan to evolve and grow as requirements and other circumstances change. Strategy Execution is basically synonymous with Strategy Management and amounts to the systematic implementation of a strategy.

What Are the Steps in Strategic Planning & Management?

There are many different frameworks and methodologies for strategic planning and management. While there are no absolute rules regarding the right framework, most follow a similar pattern and have common attributes. Many frameworks cycle through some variation on some very basic phases:

1) analysis or assessment, where an understanding of the current internal and external environments is developed,

2) strategy formulation, where high level strategy is developed, and a basic organization level strategic plan is documented

3) strategy execution, where the high-level plan is translated into more operational planning and action items, and

4) evaluation or sustainment / management phase, where ongoing refinement and evaluation of performance, culture, communications, data reporting, and other strategic management issues occurs.

Business Plan

A business plan is a written document that describes in detail how a business, usually a new one, is going to achieve its goals. A business plan lays out a written plan from a marketing, financial and operational viewpoint. Sometimes, a business plan is prepared for an established business that is moving in a new direction.

A good business plan starts with an executive summary of the business; includes a detailed description of the business, its services and/or products; and states how the business intends to achieve its goals. It should also provide at least an overview of the industry of which the business will be a part, and how it will distinguish itself from its potential competitors.

Financial Projections

A complete business plan must also include a set of financial projections for the business. These forward-looking projected financial statements are often called pro-forma financial statements or simply the "pro-formas." They include the overall budget, current and projected financing, a market analysis, and its marketing strategy approach. In a business plan, a business owner projects revenues and expenses for a certain period of time, and describes operational activity and costs related to the business.

DATA ANALYSIS:

Business analyst often uses these techniques. This technique is also known as Document analysis. As the name suggests, we analyze existing documents to elicit project requirements. This technique utilizes documents like:

Business plans,

Use cases,

Problem or issue logs,

Policies or procedures,

1.4 Identify client requirements and impact of legislation, and industry codes and standards

Project Requirement:

Lets first define Requirements in a Project. The requirement is the expectation of project stakeholders on project outcomes. As per the definition is given by PMI, Collect Requirements is the process of determining, documenting, and managing stakeholder needs & requirements to meet project objectives."

Hence, in Collection requirement process, the first step is to identify stakeholders needs. Second, Document these needs & requirements. And then, manage them throughout the project to meet project goals. This process forms the basis for project scope definition. This process contributes to the success or failure of a project. As per PMI, about 70% projects failure is attributed to requirement collection. Also, this failure ranges from 50% to 70% depending on industry and type of project. A shocking fact, most of these projects were meeting schedule & budget criterion well. Product conflict was observed during final project delivery or project closure phase. Where project product couldnt meet stakeholders requirements. So, now you can imagine, how much impact this process has, on project success!

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR REQUIREMENT GATHERING:

For any project success, project result must meet stakeholders needs and expectations. Capturing all project management requirements keeps you one step closer to project success. To collect requirements project PMBOK 6th Edition suggests project management tools and techniques.

Prerequisites for project management process tools and techniques on requirement collection;

Follow along below bullets, before deciding which tool to use:

What are technical requirements for project management

How to collect requirements for a project

Go through the below tools and techniques of project management notes

PMBOK 6th Edition defines following techniques under section 5.2 Collect Requirements:

1. Expert Judgment

2. Data Gathering

3. Data Analysis

4. Decision Making

5. Data Representation

6. Interpersonal & Team Skills

7. Context Diagram

8. Prototypes

Lets discuss these PMBOK tools in detail:

1. Expert Judgment:

Experts are the people more knowledgeable in their respective areas. Their knowledge & experience help to gather most of the specific product/ project requirements. Expert judgment is used to determine specialized requirements comprising following topics:

Requirements elicitation

Requirements analysis

Business analysis

Diagramming techniques

Facilitation

Conflict Management

Projects requirements in similar previous projects

2. Data Gathering:

Data gathering is an important technique for facilitation &/or group creativity. Here, a group of people involves figuring out all project requirements. Ideas evolve through group creativity and help to determine requirements. There are several tools, we can use this technique. But the right selection depends on the type of needs or stakeholders including other complexities. Below is the list of tools under this technique:

a) Questionnaires and Surveys:

We use this requirement-gathering tool for large groups. Wherever there is a need to capture the requirements from various stakeholders. A large number of stakeholders doesnt permit to arrange a one-to-one interview. Also, its not wise to call all them at one place, if they sit remotely. So, Questionnaire & Surveys give the opportunity to collect requirements of a big group of stakeholders. It also provides flexibility to stakeholders to take part as per their ease. Yet, to prepare the survey questions is another challenge, you have to be very careful about. Framing right/ relevant questions remove bias & help to collect real needs of stakeholders.

b) Interviews:

A tool to engage personally with stakeholders to understand needs. Interviews can be facilitated through personal meetings or phone calls. Its a good practice to prepare a checklist before interviewing. This will ensure to capture all the requirements in a single meeting. Interviews can be elaborative; hence gives an opportunity to understand stated or unstated needs.

c) Focus groups:

Its used, when we want to collect the needs from specific sets of stakeholders. Suppose you need to gather the needs of the top executive and process owners both. You can schedule separate meetings with the two. And gather the individual group's requirements.

d) Brain Storming:

Also called as group thinking or group creativity. It evolves several new ideas and new requirements. People from different domains and functions come together for a meeting. They try to share their ideas and requirements with creative thinking. This technique is very useful when you dont have any preset need. And you try to explore new requirements for a new product.

LEGISLATION AND INDUSTRY CODES AND STANDARDS MAY INCLUDE:

Australian Computer Society Code of Ethics

Sector-specific impacts on the project design and delivery.

Australian Computer Society Code of Ethics

8699501482725THE CODE

As an ACS member you must uphold and advance the honour, dignity and effectiveness of being a professional. This entails, in addition to be a good citizen and acting within the law, your conformance to the following ACS values.

1. The Primacy of the Public Interest

You will place the interests of the public above those of personal, business or sectional interests.

2. The Enhancement of Quality of Life

You will strive to enhance the quality of life of those affected by your work.

3. Honesty

You will be honest in your representation of skills, knowledge, services and products.

4. Competence

You will work competently and diligently for your stakeholders.

5. Professional Development

You will enhance your own professional development, and that of your staff.

6. Professionalism

You will enhance the integrity of the ACS and the respect of its members for each other.

In a situation of conflict between the values, The Primacy of the Public Interest takes precedence over the other values.

This Code of Professional Conduct is aimed specifically at you as an individual practitioner and is intended as a guideline for your acceptable professional conduct. It is applicable to all ACS members regardless of their role or specific area of expertise in the ICT industry.

The following list of requirements is not exhaustive and should not be read as a complete definition of acceptable professional conduct in all practical situations. The intention of the Code is to illustrate what constitutes professional behaviour. You are expected to take into account the spirit of this Code in order to resolve ambiguous or contentious issues concerning professional conduct. The ACS can help you resolve ethical dilemmas

00THE CODE

1. The Primacy of the Public Interest

You will place the interests of the public above those of personal, business or sectional interests.

2. The Enhancement of Quality of Life

You will strive to enhance the quality of life of those affected by your work.

3. Honesty

You will be honest in your representation of skills, knowledge, services and products.

4. Competence

You will work competently and diligently for your stakeholders.

5. Professional Development

You will enhance your own professional development, and that of your staff.

6. Professionalism

You will enhance the integrity of the ACS and the respect of its members for each other.

In a situation of conflict between the values, The Primacy of the Public Interest takes precedence over the other values.

Key legislation & initiatives

Legislation often plays a large part in how you run your business, so its important to be aware of the laws that apply to your industry. Key legislation that may affect businesses in the ICT industry includes:

Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct, unfair practices)

Australian Consumer Law (ACL)

Broadcasting Services Act 1992

Telecommunications Act 1997

Television Licence Fees Act 1964

Do Not Call Register Act 2006

Spam Act 2003

Privacy Act 1988

Disability Discrimination Act 1992: World Wide Web Access

Interactive Gambling Act 2001

Public Lending Right Act 1985

Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006.

1.5 Conduct risk management analysis and develop and document risk-management plan

RISK ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT

Risk Analysis and Management is a key project management practice to ensure that the least number of surprises occur while your project is underway. While we can never predict the future with certainty, we can apply a simple and streamlined risk management process to predict the uncertainties in the projects and minimize the occurrence or impact of these uncertainties. This improves the chance of successful project completion and reduces the consequences of those risks.

Introduction

Project team members at various levels identify and handle risks in different flavours. However, this will be ineffective without a structured risk management framework, as this leads to:

Incomplete impact evaluation, leading to loss of: Knowledge of the overall impact on the project objectives, like scope, time, cost, and quality

Identification of secondary or new risks arising from the already identified risks

Lack of transparency and a communication gap within and outside the team

Thus, it is very important for any project organization to set up an effective risk management framework. Instituting such a practice as a project team culture ensures:

Conscious and focused risk identification and management

Project progress as desired, with the least amount of deviations or surprise, and in line with project and organizational objectives

Early and effective communication of project issues to organization and project stakeholders

An effective team building tool, as team buy-in and acceptance is assured

RISK MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

Risk Management Plan

The organization-mandated risk management framework is reviewed and tailored to define the project risk management plan when the project is initiated. The risk management plan includes these definitions and guidelines:

List of possible risk sources and categories

Impact and probability matrix

Risk reduction and action plan

Contingency plan

Risk threshold and metrics

Risk Identification

Risks are to be identified and dealt with as early as possible in the project. Risk identification is done throughout the project life cycle, with special emphasis during the key milestones.

Risk identification is one of the key topics in the regular project status and reporting meetings.

Some risks may be readily apparent to the project teamknown risks; others will take more rigor to uncover but are still predictable.

The medium for recording all identified risks throughout the project is the risk register, which is stored in the central project server.

The following tools and guidelines are used to identify risks in a structured and disciplined way, which ensures that no significant potential risk is overlooked.

1. Risk Sources

2. Risk Category

Risk category provides a list of areas that are prone to risk events. The organization recommends high-level, standard categories, which have to be extended based on the project type.

Risk Analysis

Risk analysis involves examining how project outcomes and objectives might change due to the impact of the risk event.

Once the risks are identified, they are analysed to identify the qualitative and quantitative impact of the risk on the project so that appropriate steps can be taken to mitigate them. The following guidelines are used to analyse risks.

3. Probability of Risk Occurrence

a. High probability (80 % x 100%)

b. Medium-high probability (60 % x < 80%)

c. Medium-Low probability (30 % x < 60%)

d. Low probability (0 % < x < 30%)

4. Risk Impact

a. High Catastrophic (Rating A 100)

b. Medium Critical (Rating B 50)

c. Low Marginal (Rating C 10)

As a guideline for Impact Classification the following matrix is used:

The score represents bottom thresholds for the classification of risks assuming normal conditions. An upgrade of the score to the next or even next + 1 level is necessary, if the risk is impacted by critical factors such as:

How important the specific customer is

Whether the project is critical for the further development of the relationship with the customer

The risk is already in the focus of the customer

Specific penalties for deviations from project targets are agreed in the contract with the customer

5. Risk Exposure

Risk Exposure or Risk Score is the value determined by multiplying the Impact Rating with Risk Probability as shown in Exhibit 5.

Exhibit 5 Impact-Probability Matrix

The colours represent the urgency of risk response planning and determine reporting levels.

6. Risk Occurrence Timeframe

The timeframe in which this risk will have an impact is identified. This is classified into one of the following:

Exhibit 6 Risk occurrence timeframe

In addition to classifying risks according to the above guidelines, it is also necessary to describe the impact on cost, schedule, scope, and quality in as much detail as possible based on the nature of the risk.

7. Risk Classification Examples:

Self-check assessment

Question 1: What is project planning?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Question 2: Define strategic analysis and planning.

Question 3: What are the potential benefits of strategic planning?

CHAPTER 2. PREPARE THE ICT PROJECT PLAN

This chapter helps to understand the following:

Define and document specifications, terms of reference and skills required for project

Identify and document project budget according to project requirements

Define, document and secure resources required to support project

Develop and document timelines, schedules and critical path for project

Define and document stakeholder consultation strategy according to organisational requirements

2.1 Define and document specifications, terms of reference and skills required for project

Project specification

A good project specification is a simple but complete description of a softwares functionality and purpose. It contains descriptions of how the software will be used from a user perspective and performance details such as speed, availability, and response time. Its primary purpose is to communicate to the developers what they need to do.

How to write a good project specification

1. Find a good template that works for your project

The best place to start is with a good project specification example, template, or outline. Heres an example of a good outline to start with

1. Description of the project and objectives

2. List of all the pages/screens with all the features

3. User path/stories

4. Design mockups and wireframes

5. Tech stack and other related info

The project description doesnt need to be more than half a page. This part should describe the project and the objectives, and contain things like success criteria, budget, and timeframe.

The list of all the pages can be just a tree list describing the page structure, something like:

Homepage

About

Products

Testimonials

The user path/stories section is where you really get stuck into things. This is where you can describe how different users will use your application. It will include all different possible roles (admin, guest etc) and what features each will need to interact with your product effectively.

Mockups and wireframes are where you consolidate what youve got so far into something visual and concrete.

2. Collaborate on one online version

A project specification document should not be isolated or maintained by just one person. Ideally, you want a cloud document that everyone can view and collaborate on easily. Use Dropbox, Google Drive, or any collaboration tools you like. The important thing is that everyone is a part of building and maintaining it (more on this later).

3. Get the first version done fast

Create the document as soon as possible. Try to get your first version done in just a couple of hours. You can think of it kind of like your project spec MVP. Get something on paper, then send it to your developers for some feedback. You can all keep building and iterating until you have something useful.

Getting it done fast stops you from thinking about it too much and becoming another project spec nightmare.

4. Write from a customer perspective

Apart from the budget, tech stack related stuff etc most of your project spec should be written from a customers viewpoint. This is where user personas and storyboards really come in handy. That means writing things like Users can login by clicking the Login button.

A great trick for storyboards is to actually come up with characters with names that have uses for your product. This will help you visualize how they might use it in real life.

5. Make things visual

A picture says 1000 words, and this is especially true when describing designs and layouts. Even a bad sketch can be great at clarifying potentially ambiguous things like positioning and sizes. You even add more visuals like custom graphs, charts, table, diagrams. Anything to help you and your developers understand things more clearly.

6. Keep working on it

Another classic mistake is finishing a project specification before starting work on the project. A much better way is to have a living, evolving document that everyone collaborates on throughout the development of your project.

There will be things that change after youve started building your project, especially if you are using the MVP model of development (and you probably should be). Your document specifications need to be flexible enough to communicate these changes to everyone.

Project Terms of Reference (TOR)

Terms of Reference (TOR) are a strategy-level document that defines the tasks and duties required of a project contractor, and highlights project background and objectives at high level. The document also states the planned activities, expected inputs and outputs, project budget, working schedules, and job descriptions. It is used to judge about the performance of contractors, consultants, experts, and other project stakeholders.

The purpose of TOR is to specify the amount and type of work to be accomplished by the project. It is a governance document that establishes and determines the relationships between all project stakeholders. Terms of Reference are developed once a project has been identified, defined and planned.

TOR of a project provides a clear description of the following critical information:

The rationale behind undertaking the project

The proposed methodology of project management along with work plans and activity schedules

The expected resource requirements, primarily regarding personnel

Reporting rules and requirements

Content of TOR

The development of Project Terms of Reference is required for making the decision on whether or not to allocate necessary funds to a proposed project. It is the result of the project proposal process, and TOR serves as the primary report of this process. TOR is usually required for:

Pre-feasibility and feasibility analyses

Appraisal activity

Implementation contracts designing and monitoring

Evaluation studies

Reporting and audit

Other advisory work required at any project stage

Considering the listed items, the content of Project Terms of Reference should include business-critical information necessary for starting, implementing and monitoring project activities. Meanwhile, the exact content of TOR varies from project to project and significantly depends upon the scope of a proposed project.

A generic content format of Project Terms of Reference is suggested below:

Project Background

Project Objectives

Issues to be explored and analyzed against certain criteria

Implementation Methodology to be applied

Expertise required

Reporting requirements

Work plan, including activity schedules

2.2 Identify and document project budget according to project requirements

Project budgets, similar to resource plans, are a reflection of project work and the timing of that work. A comprehensive budget provides management with an understanding of how funds will be utilized and expended over time for projects or operations.

The S-Curve displayed below shows the estimated cumulative expenditures of the project over time. In general, a project expends resources slowly, ramps up rather quickly as more resources are utilized and then tapers off as the project comes to completion.

Most project expenditures follow this pattern, resulting in a graphical representation that resembles an "S". Knowing the timing of expenditures on a project will assist management in planning appropriately.

Building the Planned Project Budget

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the basis for any budget. The WBS includes all the work necessary to create the product of the project. The WBS is created through a decomposition process resulting in deliverables defined at the lowest level of the WBSwork package or what is called a 'task' in Project Insight.

All of the efforts used in producing the deliverable of each task can be defined in terms of cost. Labor, materials, facilities, services and overhead are examples of costs that may be expended in producing the deliverable of the task.

The sum of all tasks within the WBS constitutes the total budget of the project. Project Insight performs bottom-up budgeting, which means that the tasks roll up into summary task totals, and the project total represents the sum of all tasks planned and actual costs.

In the planning stage of the project, the project manager may build out the budget and resource plan without issue. Projects left in the 'planning' state in Project Insight allow project managers to make as many changes as necessary before launching the project. Therefore, early in the project life cycle, planned costs may be developed. These estimates can come from a variety of sourcessuch as prior project experience, industry databases, vendor catalogs and the like.

A key role of the project manager in the planning process is to build consensus from the team and sponsor on each of the WBS task elements, recognizing that as you elaborate on those tasks, the budget associated with that task may change.

Developing a Baseline Budget for a Project

A cost baseline is an approved time phased plan. Once a detailed budget is developed and approved, the project manager should publish this baseline and set it as a point of comparison for actual performance progress.

One of the biggest challenges a project manager faces is determining when to set the baseline for the budget. A baseline is an approved time phased plan. Creating a baseline should not be a 'scary' thing. It is just a starting point from what to measure performance against.

There will always be unknowns in the project, especially early on. Accept that projects will always experience changes and evolve in order to ensure delivery of the scope defined. The baseline budget is the tool for measuring how project changes affect our schedule and budget.

When to Add a New Baseline

Ideally, new baselines should only be added when there is a change in scope. If the scope stays the same, then there is not a need to add a new baseline. Again, the baseline is a benchmark to measure performance against. It represents an understanding of the costs of the project based on the scope of the project. The initial baseline is usually what gets budgeted in a company's financials.

With, there could be two other reasons why a baseline may be changed.

1. When the organization itself is asking for a re-estimation/re-baseline of all projects for corporate budgeting purposes, the financial team may request the most up to date estimates on the project even if the scope has not changed.

2. A 'significant' gap in one or more task estimates has been identified. Significant is a subjective term and should be measured in relationship to the project itself. Significant re-estimates must be communicated to project sponsors and may warrant re-setting the baseline of the project. In this case, the original baseline should be retained as historical information.

When baselines do change, it is important to document and understand the reasons for the change. It is a best practice to post any baseline changes in the project status comments. The change itself should have been reviewed and approved by a Change Control Board before modifying the baseline.

Define skills needed for the successful completion of project

Project skills allow us to accomplish tasks and goals in a timely and efficient manner. And as we all know life is full of tasks and goals that have to be accomplished, both at home and at work.

Solid personal strengths provide a good foundation for developing project skills. For instance with self-confidence, we believe we can achieve realistic goals. Self-discipline keeps us on track and personal goal setting teaches us how to lay out a realistic plan with a realistic timeframe.

Many projects, especially at work, involve interacting with other people, so strong relationship skills are also important. Assertiveness helps to ensure that all views are heard and considered. Conflict resolution skills help prevent small disagreements from becoming major conflicts. And being able to successfully interact with people who have very different perspectives makes working together toward a common goal much easier.

Project skills may overlap with some personal and relationship skills but differ in the sense that they focus primarily on the best way to complete a specific job. This is in contrast to personal strengths that focus on individual wants, needs, dreams and goals; and relationship skills that focus on general interaction with others.

5 Must Have Skills for Project Management

Apart from being an intelligent conversationalist, a project manager should have a decisive mindset and execute project deliveries in a timely manner. Here are 5 qualities that can make you stand out among your peers as a defining and respectable project manager.

#1 Clear Communication

The core of managerial skills revolves around good communication. You could have the best resources at your disposal, but without a good project manager to brief the stakeholders and team members, your projects could suffer from delayed deliveries.

Escalating risks to the relevant team, scheduling meetings to resolve problems, informing seniors on the progress of current projects are effective measures expected from successful project managers.

Its highly crucial for project managers to bolster underperforming team members and create a strong bond among the team members. Its equally necessary to praise team members that have gone out of their way and outperformed. Communication is 80 percent of a project managers criteria, if you can manage to shine in this quality, the rest will fall into place.

#2 Solving Problems

Problems are not new to the list of a project managers checklist. A critical skill set to grow as a capable project manager is to find solutions to an ongoing concern. Team members are directly influenced by the ability of their project managers problem-solving qualities. The sooner you find a solution, the faster your team can work on solving it.

Be ready to take full responsibility for your team and prepare reports on how to offer solutions by consulting senior members. When project managers blame their team for their failures, this brings down the team morale and your staff will lose their confidence to work hard.

From acquisitions to merging into a whole new company, your opinions in problem solving is always desired by the company.

#3 Resource and Time Management

When a new project is undertaken by a team, its the project managers job to alert their members on upcoming scenarios. Explain the project outline as well as provide an action plan on how to complete it. Conduct an in-depth strategy discussion and allow all members to contribute on how to save time and resources. Consider every point that has been spoken by your team and make a final decision.

An effective project manager focuses his skill set in addressing the two most important concerns how to complete project delivery in a timely manner? How to use up the least amount of resources while doing it?

Completing projects on time not only contributes to your success but it also contributes to the triumph of your whole team.

#4 Develop Modern Strategies

Gone are the days when companies used to hire a project manager with a generic skill set. The modern project manager should actively establish newer and effective methods for project completion. Anticipating a major risk before it happens proves a project manager has a defensive mindset capable of saving his company from a potential loss.

Shifting market trends may force you to change plans, a bold project manager doesnt shy away from making drastic decisions as well as accepting full responsibility. To prove that you are above the rest, you need to create opportunities for your team and company.

Success happens to those who are open to innovative thinking.

#5 Team Bonding

Your team reflects your overall personality, therefore, its necessary to share lighter moments with them. A serious environment amidst the team creates cut-throat like scenarios where everyone is fighting off each other to prove their performance. This reflects directly on your skill set of creating an aggressive atmosphere.

2.3 Define, document and secure resources required to support project

Types of Project Resources

A project manager that fails to allocate project resources is like a carpenter without a hammer.

Thats why estimating task resources is an integral step in project planning. It also happens to be one of the most fundamental aspects of project management, one of the steps that the project manager utilizes on a day to day basis.

Types of Resources

Each task on the task list must be assigned the resources necessary to perform the task.

For small projects there are three major types of resources:

1. Labor

2. Tools & equipment

3. Material & supplies

Labor

Labor is not all created equal. If you try to assign an electrician to install a toilet, you might get some flooding as well as an unhappy employee.

Likewise, if you assign an electrician to design the power plant, you might find your project costs escalating out of control as you try to find more qualified labor during the project.

Thus, in order to correctly define labor, you must identify two things:

1. Type

2. Class

Labor is usually estimated in hours but can range all the way up to years for megaprojects. In fact, when I was a junior engineer, I was involved in a large oil sands project where budgeting and scheduling happened in man-years.

Tools & Equipment

This category generally includes all of the items that do not go into the finished product. Things like drill bits that are used up during a project, or the addition of new tools that the company doesnt already own. It also includes equipment such as forklifts, vehicles and software.

Often the tools and equipment will be used over multiple projects. In this case it is important to divide the cost over a conservative number of projects to get a realistic idea of how much the project is paying for it.

Most tools and equipment have an ongoing maintenance cost which must be factored into its project cost.

Materials & Supplies

This includes the items that become part of the finished product, like timber for a log home or gravel for the driveway. Often these items are quoted by the unit, such as per foot of timber. Normally you have to order more quantity than will be used in the finished product, because:

The material is not produced in the exact lengths required.

The project will generate some waste.

A contingency factor can also be used on the overall quantity to account for unexpected issues during the course of the project.

When there are many small supplies that are too small to track individually it is generally recommended to include a catch-all item, for example Landscaping Supplies.

Other Resources

For larger projects, or where greater project management effort is justified, the following resources can also be used.

1. Organizational/Administration. The portion of the organizations administration cost that the project must pay for.

2. Subcontractors. These can be tracked as a fixed cost item within a task.

3. Facilities. The purchase or rental of buildings to perform the work.

4. Financing costs. The interest cost for loans required to carry out the project.

5. Contingencies. Where the complexity of the project justifies contingencies as separate resource items, they can be tracked separately.

6. Overtime pays. This applies to people as well as to equipment where the rate increase after a certain point in time.

Direct vs. Indirect vs. Overhead

Of course, the CEOs salary has to be spread-out over-all projects. In fact, every project has things that are only partially paid for by the project, like tools, bulk fuel purchases, and accounting.

Each project resource falls into one of three categories:

1. Direct. Work that results in production units. For example, the hourly unit rate of a laborer, or unit rate for a piece of equipment. The actual cost should be divided into a reasonable number of projects that the resource will be shared across. It must also include the secondary costs like benefits, retirement contributions, bonuses, and any other expense associated with the resource.

2. Indirect. Work that is required to produce deliverables but doesnt directly translate into production. This includes things like quality control, production supervision, and yes, project management. This type of resource needs to be included in estimates to give an accurate project cost. It needs to be divided into each task and allocated as much as practical.

3. Overhead. Organizational administration costs like CEOs salaries are not attributable to the project but, depending on the organizational structure, sometimes must be paid for by all projects. The difference between indirect expenses and overhead is that the indirect expenses are attributable to the project (must be performed to complete the project) whereas overhead doesnt necessarily have any project involvement. Most project-based organizations determine the yearly administrative expense and divide it by the number of projects to arrive at a burden rate on individual projects (or on a resource level, like employee charge out rate) for the following year.

Estimate Activity Resources

Estimate Activity Resources is the process of estimating the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment, or supplies required to perform each activity. The key benefit of this process is that it identifies the type, quantity, and characteristics of resources required to complete the activity which allows more accurate cost and duration estimates.

Estimating Techniques

Generally, you would perform task estimates from the bottom up, meaning each task is given an estimate which is then rolled up into the overall project estimate. Naturally, this is called Bottom Up Estimating. Within each task then, you can employ one (or more) of three estimating techniques:

1. Analogous Estimating. This is when you make an analogy to the same, or similar, task that has been performed before. This is the best source of information because actual work completed is extremely reliable, even if it requires adjustments. For example, if your project is for building a driveway and youve done it before, you clearly have a head start. Even if you have to make some adjustments, the starting point is tremendously valuable.

2. Parametric Estimating. In this method the work is drilled down into a unit cost, for which an estimate exists from published data or prior experience. For example, the

cost per square foot of log home can be gleaned from previous projects. In the construction industry almost, everything is done this way, from the engineering time down to the construction materials.

3. Three-point estimating. If youre not sure how much of a resource is required but can readily put an upper and lower bound on the value, this method is for you. With a three point estimate you choose an optimistic (a) and pessimistic (b) estimate in addition to the normal, most likely (m) one. Then a distribution can be chosen to arrive at the final estimate.

1. Normal distribution: te = (a + m + b) / 3.

2. Beta distribution: te = (a + 4m + b) / 6.

Resource Calendars

A resource calendar is consulted to determine if the resource is available. This can range from a simple listing of when an employee will be on vacation to a sophisticated software tracking tool.

A resource allocation plan can also be an important tool in effective management of scarce resources.

The timing of the need of those resources can be and should be determined within the project schedules. A resource plan, which describes the type of resource needed and the timing of that need, is critical to effective resource management. As the project schedule changes, the resource plan must also be flexible enough to adjust as these changes occur.

2.4 Develop and document timelines, schedules and critical path for project

CREATE AN EFFECTIVE PROJECT SCHEDULE

Whilst planning your project schedule and timelines is no easy feat, getting the plan as right as possible before work commences is vital. After all, the plan will help you allocate resources, provide a baseline for performance management, and enable tracking as the project progresses.

Of course, if you do develop a well-considered plan, you also need to work hard to ensure your team sticks to it.

Recommended actions and strategies

The table below lists the steps for developing a project schedule:

For a more official version of the term, the Project Management Institute defines it as, Contingency planning involves defining action steps to be taken if an identified risk event should occur. Contingency plans in project management are a component of risk management, and they should be part of the risk management plan.

When to use a contingency plan

Contingency plans can only be created for identified risks, not unidentified or unknown risks. Since, if you dont know what your risk is, its impossible to plan for it.

It should be noted that contingency plans are not only put in place to anticipate when things go wrong. They can also be created to take advantage of strategic opportunities.

Time Contingency

The contingency allowance is the time allocated during planning for unscheduled events. Technical and personal disruptions result in changes in the indirect production costs. The contingency allowance is calculated in special contingency time studies, the results of which yield rates for indirect production costs.

Tasks slip for all types of reason. Typical high-risk reasons are:

Lack of resource availability or late start

Resource lacks appropriate skills

Issues prolong the work

Requirements are not clearly defined

Designing and creating for the first time

Hand-off was late from another department

Etc

As tasks slip, there are multiple ways to address the slippage:

If the late task is not on the critical path, finish as soon as possible

If the late task is on the critical path, determine if other tasks need to be started without the late task finishing

Possibly add more resources

Work more hours in the same duration (evenings, weekends)

Possibly adjust requirements or scope

Make up the lost time elsewhere in the schedule

Use contingency, if available

Etc

Contingency Plan

A contingency plan is essentially a Plan B. Its a backup plan in place for when things go differently than expected. In other words, a contingency plan in project management is a defined, actionable plan that is to be enacted if an identified risk becomes a reality.

2.5 Define and document stakeholder consultation strategy according to organisational requirements

What Is Stakeholder Consultation?

Stakeholder consultation involves the development of constructive, productive relationships over the long term. It results in a relationship of mutual benefit; it enables us to identify trends and emerging challenges which are currently or will in the future impact on the organisation. Listening to stakeholder concerns and feedback is a valuable source of information that can be used to improve project design and outcomes and help a corporation to identify and control external risks. It can also form the basis for future collaboration and partnerships.

Consultation enables us to identify and monitor trends, challenges and perceptions over time with specific groups of stakeholders. It therefore helps us to:

Identify and track needs and expectations

Identify and track perceptions and attitudes

Provide feedback on specific planned developments

Evaluate implementations and actions

Establish the brand values and positioning of the corporation as seen by others

The internal and external stakeholder contribution can be vital to the effective allocation of resources, the success of individual developments, and the longer-term success and direction of the corporation.

Consultation usually takes on two forms:

Consultation on specific developments, projects, ventures

Ongoing consultation to track and monitor stakeholder perceptions within the broader operating environment

In the commercial sphere, it is commonly used for development of new products and services. A company may consult with its customers to establish future needs and ensure these are incorporated into the development of new products and services. Customers are also likely to present relative perceptions i.e. in the competitive market providing valuable input about competitor activity. In addition, this can be followed up by feedback on prototypes, blueprints, etc. before the final products are presented to market.

Ongoing consultation is adopted to ensure buy-in from stakeholders and to ensure the corporation is not moving away from the expectations and needs of those who have an interest in its affairs.

The Consultation Process

A corporations consultation process is an opportunity for stakeholders to get information as well as give feedback. Stakeholders can use the opportunity to educate the corporation about the local context in which a project will take place, to raise issues and concerns, ask questions, and potentially help shape the project by making suggestions for the corporation to consider and respond to. Therefore, a planned process for consultation needs to be in place, commencing with clear objectives about what is to be achieved.

The process generally involves five steps to successful execution. It can be ongoing and iterative, a one-off consultation related to a specific discrete issue, or a series of consultations related to a particular project. Either way, the process will generally involve four steps (the 4 Ps), as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Consultation Process

In the planning stage, the aims and objectives need to be clarified, along with identification of the usefulness of the process, i.e. the likelihood that stakeholder views will be incorporated into strategic planning. The availability of resources to carry out the process will need to be established and a method of consultation designed that is reflective of this. Consideration will need to be given as to whether any pre-release information is required e.g. about a project design, brief, plans, strategic positions, etc.

After establishing the aims and objectives, the actual process of consultation will need to be planned, i.e.:

Who are the key stakeholder groups?

How accessible are they?

Are there any hard-to-reach groups?

How can their co-operation and engagement be gained?

What is the best method of consulting with the groups?

What do they need to see beforehand?

How can this be disseminated?

Will any pre-consultation be required to prepare stakeholders for the exercise?

The method of consultation will need to be identified, balancing the resources available and the level of feedback required.

The process stage is the doing stage; this involves carrying out the consultation. Good planning will ensure this stage runs smoothly. Considerations in this stage mainly centre on developing effective relationships with stakeholders and facilitating open and honest sharing of views, and accurate recording of the process and the data.

The next stage, presentation, is concerned with the analysis and the reporting of the data. The data will need to be analysed and reporting prepared for the relevant audiences i.e. back to the corporation, to policy makers, etc. but also feedback to those who have engaged in the process and taken part. The form of reporting will need to take into account audiences and ensure the highest possibility of actions as a result of the consultation.

The final stage relates to actions as a result of the consultation; the promise. Part of the process of engaging with stakeholders is the investment in a longer-term relationship of mutual benefit and trust. Without demonstrable use of stakeholder feedback in resultant action, this can be damaged. The final stage, therefore, has an element of PR contained within it; communications about resultant actions need to be carefully considered to reach stakeholder audiences.

Methods of Stakeholder Consultation

Consultation with stakeholders involves using methods commonly employed by market and academic researchers. Key issues of consideration when deciding on the methods are whether the consultation requires depth or breadth of knowledge (or a combination of the two).

The former calls for largely qualitative research approaches. These are approaches which use open styles of discussion and debate. It is the facilitators job to tease out views and perceptions which are truly held by the stakeholder. The focus group, individual depth interviews, and observation are the most common methods used.

If breadth is required, approaches reaching larger numbers of people and using more standardised measurement tools are required i.e. quantitative methods such as surveys, short street interviews, e-surveys, etc. These methods will reach wider audiences but are restricted to

largely closed questions and rating scales. The data is numerical and statistical analysis is used to demonstrate the generalist viewpoint. Some methods straddle these two poles and have the ability to gain both depth and breadth, such as the large public meeting and online open debate consultation tools now available to us through the digital media.

Figure 2: Approaches to Consultation

Each of these methods has its strengths and its weaknesses. The method or combination of methods selected should be reflective of the aims of the consultation process. The chart below demonstrates where the strengths of the common approaches lie.

Figure 3: Strengths of Commonly Used Methods of Stakeholder Consultation

Self-check assessment

Question 1: How to write a good project specification?

Question 2: Explain the term TOR.

Question 3:Explain why and when we need to add a baseline?

CHAPTER 3. ASSEMBLE THE ICT PROJECT TEAM AND COMMENCE WORK

This chapter helps to understand the following:

Secure and brief appropriate project-team members regarding the project, their roles, levels of delegated responsibility and the outcomes to be achieved

Implement effective communication processes to coordinate work and inform team members of progress

Identify and communicate clear reporting processes for team members

3.1 Brief required personnel on project scope and respond to feedback given

What is a RACI matrix?

The RACI matrix is a responsibility assignment chart that maps out every task, milestone or key decision involved in completing a project and assigns which roles are Responsible for each action item, which personnel are Accountable, and, where appropriate, who needs to be Consulted or Informed. The acronym RACI stands for the four roles that stakeholders might play in any project.

RACI matrix roles and responsibilities

The RACI model brings structure and clarity to describing the roles that stakeholders play within a project. The RACI matrix clarifies responsibilities and ensures that everything the project needs done is assigned someone to do it.

The four roles that stakeholders might play in any project include the following:

Responsible: People or stakeholders who do the work. They must complete the task or objective or make the decision. Several people can be jointly Responsible.

Accountable: Person or stakeholder who is the "owner" of the work. He or she must sign off or approve when the task, objective or decision is complete. This person must make sure that responsibilities are assigned in the matrix for all related activities. Success requires that there is only one person Accountable, which means that "the buck stops there."

Consulted: People or stakeholders who need to give input before the work can be done and signed-off on. These people are "in the loop" and active participants.

Informed: People or stakeholders who need to be kept "in the picture." They need updates on progress or decisions, but they do not need to be formally consulted, nor do they contribute directly to the task or decision.

How to create a RACI matrix

The simple process for creating a RACI model includes the following six steps:

1. Identify all the tasks involved in delivering the project and list them on the left-hand side of the chart in completion order. For IT projects, this is most effectively addressed by incorporating the PLC steps and deliverables. (This is illustrated in the detailed example below, after the simplified version immediately below.)

2. Identify all the project stakeholders and list them along the top of the chart.

3. Complete the cells of the model identifying who has responsibility, accountability and who will be consulted and informed for each task.

4. Ensure every task has at least one stakeholder Responsible for it.

5. No tasks should have more than one stakeholder Accountable. Resolve any conflicts where there is more than one for a particular task.

6. Share, discuss and agree the RACI model with your stakeholders at the start of the project. This includes resolving any conflicts or ambiguities.

Here is an illustration of such a simplified RACI model:

RACI matrix best practices

Simply creating a RACI matrix is not enough. You must ensure that the matrix maps to a successful strategy. Here, conflicts and ambiguities in the plan must be hammered out.

Resolving conflicts and ambiguities in a RACI matrix involves looking across each row and up and down each column for the following:

Analysis for each stakeholder:

Are there too many R's: Does one stakeholder have too much of the project assigned to them?

No empty cells: Does the stakeholder need to be involved in so many of the activities? Can Responsible be changed to Consulted, or Consulted changed to Informed? I.e., are there too many "cooks in this kitchen" to keep things moving? (And if so, what does that say about the culture within which this project is being managed?)

Buy-in: Does each stakeholder totally agree with the role that they are specified to play in this version of the model? When such agreement is achieved, that should be included in the project's charter and documentation.

3.2 Identify and communicate required reporting processes for team members

Project Communication Process

Communication plays a pivotal role in project management. An effective communication mechanism helps project managers to communicate with all the team members who are part of the project. Project communication process includes a set of procedures that are followed every time a formal communication process is initiated within a company.

An efficient communication process helps project managers to identify information that has to be sent and also decide on the audience who will be receiving this information. After the process of identifying the audience, project managers have to decide on the format of the information and schedule a time to pass the information to team members and stakeholders.

By doing this, stakeholders will regularly receive updates on project status which is an important activity of project managers. They can also use status reports and conduct meetings with the associates on periodical basis to share project status information. An effective communication process provides regular updates on the status of the project as well as its performance capacity to the team members and stakeholders.

The Communication Process will help you to:

Identify the messages that need to be sent

Determine your target audience for communication

Decide on your message format and timing

Draft your message and gain approval where required

Communicate your message, through communications events

Gather feedback and improve your communication processes

By using this Communication Process, you can:

Clearly identify your project stakeholders

Identify your stakeholders communications needs

Run any type of communications event to send out your message

Ensure the right people receive the right information at the right time

PROJECT COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

Project Communications Management consists of the following processes:

Identify Stakeholders

Plan Communications

Distribute Information

Manage Stakeholder Expectations

Report Performance

Identify Stakeholders

The Identify Stakeholders process involves the identification of all stakeholders that can impact the project. This Project Management Communication process involves documenting their level of interest, power, influence, and project impact.

The key tools and techniques used in this process are stakeholder analysis and expert judgment. During stakeholder analysis, you will use the Power/Interest, Power/Influence, and Influence/Impact grids. The Salience Model is also used during stakeholder analysis. By the end of this process, you will have created a Stakeholder Register and Stakeholder Management strategy.

Tip: Both the Plan Communications and Manage Stakeholder expectations use the output of the Identify Stakeholders process, therefore do not rush through this process.

Plan Communications

The Plan Communications process involves documenting the communication needs of the stakeholders identified in the Identify Stakeholders process. To effectively plan project communication, you need to use the Stakeholder Register and the Stakeholder Management strategy created during the Identify Stakeholders process.

The key tools and techniques in this process are Communication Requirements analysis, Communication Technology, Communication Models, and Communication Methods. The main output of this process is the Communication Management Plan. Other project management plans may also need to be updated, as the needs of stakeholders are uncovered.

Distribute Information

The Distribute Information process in the Project Communications Management PMBOK Project Management Knowledge Area involves effectively executing the Communications Management Plan. Simply put, it is in this process that you implement the communication needs of stakeholders. For example, a Daily Status meeting is a type of communication. The key tools and techniques in this process are Communication Methods and Information Distribution Tools.

Communication Methods can either be Pull, such as communication via emails, or Push Communication, such as communication via Intranet.

The Manage Stakeholder Expectations process involves using the various communication methods, interpersonal skills, and management skills to ensure the communication needs of stakeholders are addressed. This will involve resolving conflicts in the workplace, facilitating meetings with stakeholders, and building trust.

Report Performance

The Report Performance process involves ensuring performance, progress and forecast information are communicated to the identified stakeholders. As you might have already deduced, variance analysis and forecasting methods, are key tools and techniques in this process. The others are communication methods and reporting methods. The key output of this process is performance reports.

PROJECT STATUS REPORTING PROCESS

Project status reporting is one element of the project controlling process and project governance. Its purpose is to ensure that the objectives of the project are being met by monitoring and measuring progress regularly to determine variances from the plan. When variances are identified, then corrective action can be taken.

There are a number of benefits of regular status reporting. A few of the more significant benefits are:

It provides an opportunity to raise issues or variances from the plan and to take corrective action before a situation gets beyond recovery. It is possible that a situation cannot be recovered. However, at a minimum, the situation is identified, and it does get reviewed.

It helps to create accountability for the work being done. This happens because it makes the work more visible to all of the project stakeholders (i.e. project team members, Project Manager, Project Sponsor, and Senior Management).

It creates a visible record of the progress of the project. The Project Manager or Senior Management can review this record should some of the history be needed.

Status Reporting Cycle

Regular status reporting is necessary in order to be effective. It helps to maintain traction and visibility for the project. The frequency of reporting is often a function of the duration of a project and its importance to an organization. For projects with a short duration (i.e. less than six months), it is better to have weekly reporting so that issues are raised and dealt with sooner. For projects with a longer duration, bi-weekly or monthly reporting may be more suitable or desirable.

Roles & Responsibilities

There are various roles and responsibilities in the status reporting process. The following list describes the most common ones:

Project Manager

Monitors project progress and report progress regularly, using the Project Status Report form, to the Project Sponsor and Steering Committee/PMO.

Escalates issues relating to scope, schedule, resources, and budget, when they cannot be resolved. The first escalation is to the Project Sponsor. If there is no resolution at that level, then the final escalation is to the Steering Committee.

Escalates proposed significant changes to scope, schedule, resources, and budget.

Project Sponsor

Usually the senior manager representing the business area that is receiving the greatest benefit from the project.

Ensures that Project Status Reports are received and reviewed regularly.

Addresses issues when they cannot be resolved by the Project Team.

Project Management Office

Ensures that Project Status Reports are received regularly.

Periodically reviews the Project Status Reports and follow up with Project Managers for clarification, as appropriate.

Steering Committee

Should consist of key stakeholders to the project, the project sponsor, and project owner

Provides executive level support, guidance, and direction.

Reviews progress of projects.

Addresses issues relating to scope, schedule, resources, and budget, when escalated, if not resolvable via project manager or project sponsor.

Status Report Formats

There are many varying formats that can be used for project status reporting. The contents will depend on the rigor with which you are tracking the project, the frequency of reporting, and whether or not budget tracking is incorporated into the report, and if Earned Value is being reported.

At a minimum the status report should contain the following categories:

Status Summary Gives high level summary project state

Project Progress Progress made in the last reporting period. Would include key milestones met, key deliverables completed, budget and schedule tacking.

Planned Progress Identify any items to be completed during next reporting period.

Risks/Issues Any identified risks and issues along with the management plan to deal with specific risks/issues.

Resources It is always good to identify the current resourcing level on the project in the status report so that all stakeholders have an appreciation for the work level and resource requirements

Budget if required, the report should identify the current project budget to complete, budget used so far, planned budget so far, and explain any variances.

Schedule if required, the report should identify the current project schedule to complete, has the work completed so far been done on schedule, and explain any variances.

Self-check assessment

Question 1: What is RACI Matrix?

Question 2: Define RACI matrix roles and responsibilities.

Question 3: List and define Project Communication processes?

CHAPTER 4. MANAGE THE IT PROJECT

This chapter helps to understand the following:

Monitor project progress according to project plan requirements

Manage team member performance and confirm that output aligns to key performance indicators identified in project plan

Make required corrections, changes and additions to project plan

Monitor resourcing and make corrections to reflect changing circumstances

Report overall project progress to required personnel

4.1 Monitor project progress according to project plan requirements

MONITOR AND CONTROL PROJECT WORK: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

The tools and techniques used for monitoring and controlling the project work are pretty general: expert judgment, decision making, and meetings. These are just generically described below. But there is one set of tools that is very specific and those are data analysis techniques. These will be described in more detail.

Expert Judgment

This is judgment provided by individuals who have expertise in the data analysis techniques that are described in the next paragraph.

Data Analysis Techniques

These techniques that can be used include the following:

1.Detection

First of all, there are the techniques that are used to detect whether there is a variation or not.

Earned value analysisprovides an integrated perspective on scope, schedule, and cost performance.

Variance analysisreviews the differences between planned and actual performance.

Trend analysisused to forecast future performance based on past results.

2. Diagnosis

Once a variation is detected, then you diagnosis the source of the variation.

Root cause analysisidentifies the main reasons for a problem that is causing a variation.

3.Corrective and/or Preventive Actions

Once the root cause of a problem that is causing a variation is identified, the various possibilities for a solution are investigated and the best solution is chosen to correct the problem.

Alternatives analysisused to select the combination of corrective actions and/or preventive actions to implement

Cost-benefit analysishelps determine the best corrective action in terms of cost in case of project deviations.

These techniques are designed to generate a change request which, when implemented, will solve the problems identified.

Decision Making

If there are several alternatives suggested to solving a particular problem, then the data analysis techniques listed above of alternatives analysis and cost-benefit analysis are used to help the project team decide on the best solution. Decision-making techniques can include voting and the outcome can be based on unanimity, majority, or plurality (the greatest number of votes gathered even if not a majority).

Meetings

Meetings are tools where project team members gather to use the data analysis techniques and expert judgment to make a decision regarding the best course of action to take in order to solve problems discovered during the monitoring of the project.

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES TO MONITOR PROJECT PROGRESS

Techniques are the implementation of strategy and as such the techniques used for project monitoring and controlling depends on the strategy adopted. The various techniques in use include basic and common methods such as meetings to scientific analysis such as earned value analysis and critical path analysis. The project manager and other stakeholders determine the best approach considering specific project factors such as project objectives, nature of resources, environmental factors, and more.

The corpus of project management experience provides sound and time-tested techniques that allow for effective monitoring and controlling. Experience also shows which techniques would become relevant in what circumstances and how to implement these techniques.

GANTT charts

Gantt charts are used to show calendar time task assignments in days, weeks or months. The tool uses graphic representations to show start, elapsed, and completion times of each task within a project. Gantt charts are ideal for tracking progress. The number of days actually required to complete a task that reaches a milestone can be compared with the planned or estimated

number. The actual workdays, from actual start to actual finish, are plotted below the scheduled days.

This information helps target potential timeline slippage or failure points. These charts serve as a valuable budgeting tool and can show dollars allocated versus dollars spent.

Critical path analysis

Critical path analysis will have identified all project related milestones and analysed their importance. Analytical techniques such as continual monitoring on a Gantt chart or milestones table will help identify slippage in time sensitive tasks and maintain project progress. Measuring this slippage against pre-set tolerances helps identify where, how, and when corrective action needs to be taken.

4.2 Manage team member performance and confirm that output aligns to key performance indicators identified in project plan

Key Performance Indicators

KPI is an acronym that stands for key performance indicator. It is a measurement that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving its key business objectives. KPI metrics are often monitored with online dashboards or tracking templates.

Organizations use KPI metrics to evaluate their success in reaching targets. When you use KPIs on projects, youre measuring team progress.

Two Types of KPIs

There are two different types: quantitative and qualitative. The difference between the two, in terms of what they measure, is listed below.

Quantitative

1. Overall task programs

2. Workload efficiency

3. Timesheet submittals

4. Task dependencies

Qualitative

1. Mentoring time

2. Collaboration

3. Stakeholder/client satisfaction

4. Communication

How to Use KPI

You should blend the two types in order to get a complete metric for team performance. To achieve this, she suggested taking these steps:

1. Write a Clear Objective: What are you trying to measure and control?

2. Share with the Team: Make sure those objectives are communicated throughout your project team, so everyone is on the same page.

3. Update: Regularly update the team, as objectives can change.

4. Review Weekly: Meet weekly to make sure that as the project progresses, everyone stays informed on what youre measuring and how.

Best Practices

Follow these three tips will keep your KPIs working accurately and effectively:

1. Make sure the KPIs you created are aligned with the organization and project.

2. Make sure theyre achievable and not unrealistic for your team.

3. Make sure that theyre actionable.

Deciding on KPIs

When deciding on what KPIs to use, you should clearly and accurately define critical success factors first, and then identify KPIs that are most accurately and directly tied to the CSFs. Again, both the CSFs and KPIs must be clearly defined and agreed-upon by stakeholders and they should be ranked in order of importance to the overall business strategy and goals.

Here are some examples of the types of project management KPIs that apply to team performance and strength:

Financial: These are typically utilized when the measure is monetary.

Quantitative: These are for projects where the relevant metric is not financial but is something that can be quantified numerically.

Qualitative: A qualitative KPI is used when the relevant metric is not numerical in nature.

Process: A KPI evaluating the process employed in a project can be used when the priority is to assess efficiency.

Team performance: This type of KPI can be used to measure a teams strength and its ability to execute.

KPIs measuring team performance would most likely be qualitative in nature. But a process or quantitative metric could also be used to evaluate teams depending on the nature of the project, product, service or industry since team and individual activities may involve the utilization of specific processes or quantifiable activities to accomplish goals.

4.3 Make required corrections, changes and additions to project plan

Project managers have to update their plans all the time. Following are some of the key steps that you need to follow to make corrections, changes and additions to the project plan considering changing circumstances to ensure project aims and outcomes:

1. Acknowledge That Change is Good

First, recognize that as soon as your project changes, your plan has to change to adapt to those new needs. Its a good thing that you are amending your plan to reflect new requirements. And its easy to make changes because youve put in so much work already making sure that your plan is in great shape.

2. Identify the Change

Clearly identify the change that is under consideration. It might have originated from a team member, customer or your project sponsor. Make sure you fully understand what they would like to do. Many businesses use a short change request form to capture the details and why the change is required, but in reality, requests for changes arrive at the door of the project manager in many formats. These could include email and discussions.

However, you receive the information, you should be logging the change in a document or online project management tool. These are the important details to record for every change:

Name of the change

A detailed description of the change including the business justification or reason behind the request to change the project

Name of person who initiated the change (the person who came up with the idea)

Name of person who is assigned to manage the change from your project team

Date change was raised

3. Review the Impact of Change

When you have a clear idea about what change is desired you can work out how it will impact your project. There are likely to be impacts across several areas including:

Project budget: cost savings or extra expenditure

Requirements or benefits: the change could bring additional benefits or reduce existing planned benefits

Timescales: extra tasks mean more work and changes to key project dates

Resources: whether your existing team has the skills to complete the change

Risks: the change may result in new risks or the better management of existing risks

4. Make the Decision

Whatever the outcome, youll need to let the person who raised the change know what is happening and why. Youll also have to inform the project team so they know if they are supposed to plan for and do any additional tasks.

Youve now got all the data you need in order to determine if you want to go ahead with this change. Your choices are:

Approve the change to go ahead now

Approve the change with some caveats or special conditions, such as must be done before end of the month

Defer the change for discussion or implementation later

Reject the change

Update your project management software to include the date that the work on the change is due to be completed by. This will help you monitor progress and check that changes are being worked on in a timely manner.

Pro Tip: If its a small change you can ask your project sponsor to make a decision verbally or in an email it wont need a big discussion. For anything significant, make the decision during the project board or steering group meeting and document it in the meeting minutes.

5. Update Your Project Schedule

Add the new tasks to your project schedule, using the information from Step 3 to build out estimates. Allocate resources to that work and update any other documents so that your records are complete, especially your project budget.

When the work is completed, mark the task as done on your project plan and go back to your change log to record the date that the change was resolved. Note down what was done so you have a record of the work and any other notes that could be useful to the team in the future.

6. Share Your New Perfect Plan

Make the team aware of the changes and point them to your online project management software to see the latest position.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN

A change management plan can be the difference between project success and failure.

How to Make a Change Management Plan

There are five phases in a project: initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control, and close. During the life cycle of a project, change can occur during the execution, monitoring and controlling phases.

Change is measured against the project baseline, which is the detailed description of the time, cost, scope and quality of the project that you have determined when planning. Therefore, a change management plan is going to take that baseline and ask how, what, when where, why and how to figure out change and how to manage it.

What Makes Up a Change Management Plan?

Define the following elements below to create an effective change management plan for your project.

Change Management Roles: First, who is going to be doing what in your change management plan? Who has the authority to submit a change request, who reviews them and who authorizes them? Some of these roles will take place on a change control board.

Change Control Board: Staff your change control board with people who will receive the change requests and have the authority to approve or veto them.

Develop a Process: You need a process in order to effectively submit, evaluate, authorize and manage and control the change requests. Without a process, change management is unmanageable.

Change Request Form: You cant have a process, however, if you dont first create a change request form to capture the data. Its important that the information you collect is consistent throughout the project.

Change Log: Basically, this is a place to collect, and then track, all the changes. Without a central location where changes can be identified, requests approved, and assignment documented, theres no way to know if theres been any progress.

Use a Tool: A project management software can help you keep track of a change through every phase of the project until its finally resolved.

4.4 Monitor resourcing and make corrections to reflect changing circumstances

Planning Project Resources

You cant expect results from your resources until you know who your resources are. Thats why we start with that bedrock of project management, the list. Make a detailed list of all the resources youre going to use to complete the project. Be as detailed as possible. You can always cut things out, but you dont want to have to add things later when it might be too late.

Once you have a team assembled, youll want to include them in the resource planning. Only by working with your team members will you be able to discern who needs what to accomplish the tasks. Some team members might need more time and support, others might require additional people or equipment, but you cant make those adjustments to your plan until you know how to allocate your resources.

Scheduling the resources is next. You have resources to accomplish your tasks, but you should set them out across a timeline. This is best done with an online Gantt chart, so you can assign the work to the team while also planning out the task schedule. this gives you a visual representation of the duration of each task and who is responsible for that task, and you can also link relevant tasks together, to indicate when resources are blocked or reliant on each other. The overall allocation of resources, then, is best done by working back from your deadline. Total the resources you use each week and youll get an idea of how to have your team work within the constraints of your schedule to meet the project goal.

Just as when youre planning for non-personnel resources, such as materials and equipment, its best to plan for things you might not need. Of course, you dont want to go overboard and overextend yourself. You are working within a budget. However, its best to plan for as much more as you can afford so you have those resources ready to be in play if you need them. Resource planning is less complicated when you can break it down into these smaller parts.

A good way to do this is with a Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS), which is a way for you to order the list of resources youve collected. Basically, youre putting them into a hierarchy, either according to a hiring organization, geography or some other criteria. You decide what the relevancy of your structure is, according to your project goals. You should be able to get a WBS view right from your Gantt chart.

That brings us to what resource planning really is: its financial planning. If you had unlimited funds, youd be able to cover all your bases and be prepared for almost anything. But you dont have a bottomless well of capital at your disposal. Look at what your expenses are and spread them out wisely. Be sure to set up your project management software to account for the hourly rate of your team and equipment, as well as define their skills, so you can track costs and payments throughout the life of the project.

Tracking Project Resources

Youve made the plan, now you must manage it as you move through the various stages of your project. After you have your list of resources, schedule and deadlines, you now should figure out which resources are working on what tasks.

The goal is to make sure that youve managed your team so that no one person is over-allocated or under-allocated. You need a workload management tool as part of your project management software to view the planned effort of your teams tasks to be able to track that against their actual effort.

HYPERLINK "https://static.projectmanager.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/features-all-workload.jpg"

Youre also going to have to adjust your plans and schedule, to some degree, to the plans and schedule of your team. Yes, theyre employees, but that doesnt mean they dont get sick, plan vacations and then there are holidays that are going to impact the project. Some dates you can plan for, such as vacation time and holidays, but others are going to require a day-today maintenance. Be sure your workload tool supports showing holiday and working or non-working days, so you can easily see when someone is available or not.

One way to follow the fluctuating schedules of your team is by employing timesheets. By having your team use timesheets, youre able to not only track their progress over the course of the project, but you now have a window into their availability. As soon as they know if theyre available, you know, and can act accordingly. Its best when the timesheets and workload management are rolled into your project management software, so youre not juggling data between two systems.

Managing Project Resources

Youve planned and youre tracking, and both are done using your project resource tracking software. Now the offline part: leadership. Here are some tips that can help guide your resource management, so you can effectively lead your team.

Participate: Some project managers are like puppet masters, seated above the action and pulling the strings. While this might work for some. Its not going to prove effective for most. Thats because you must be in the trenches with your team, so you know whats happening in the project and the people its happening to. Otherwise, how can you productively manage?

Delegate: While you want to be part of the process, you cant be everywhere, all the time. If you try, youre going to stress and break. Yes, there are responsibilities that only you can do. But there are other jobs that can be delegated and should be.

Communicate: The best laid plans are going nowhere if theyre not articulated clearly and disseminated to the right people. A project leader is a great communicator, first, and then knows the best channels to reach whomever their target audience is.

Meetings: One way to communicate effectively is through meetings, whether in groups or one-on-one. Meetings are notorious time-wasters, but thats because theyre either being called for no reason or theyre not being lead properly. A good meeting is one that delivers its message without any time wasted, and those who leave the meeting can work better.

HYPERLINK "https://static.projectmanager.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/features-all-dashboards.jpg"

Project Resource Management Tools

Of course, the biggest tip when working on getting the most out of your resources is to use the right resource management tools. Tools can talk all your planning and management of resources and facilitate the process so you can do a better job at it in less time.

One benefit is being able to view all your work across you team on one page. This is a birds-eye view which gives you the perspective to schedule ahead with ease, because you can see at a glance the allocation of each team member.

When you do have to reassign a team member, giving them more or less work, a resource management tool gives you that feature with just a click of the keyboard. Instead of having to take up your valuable time assigning team members, you can simply use a pulldown menu and the task has been reassigned.

Resource management tools also help you get the information you need fast. You dont have to go through spreadsheets and other data dumps, the software does it for you by color-coding. Like a red flag, you can see if someone is overallocated, while other colors mark someone who is allocated or out for whatever reason. Looking for how to allocate your team evenly has never been easier.

When that resource management software is online, then youre given the extra-benefit of monitoring your human resources in real-time. From the dashboard view, youre given reports on every aspect of your

projects progress, across scheduling and budget, as well as resource management. You can watch your teams workload in real-time, and then you can also generate dynamic, graphic and clear reports with a keystroke, which can then be shared and exported in any number of formats.

4.5 Report overall project progress to required personnel

Progress reporting is an essential activity of project management. The project manager issues regular reports on progress against budget, schedule and scope. Include these people on your circulation list:

Project Sponsor

Budget Holder

Senior Users

Team Members

Project Status Report

The Project Status Report is a document that is used by Project Managers for formal regular reporting on the status of a project to the Steering Committee, Project Sponsor, Senior Manager or other Key Stakeholders, depending on the size of the project. It is important to remember that the role of the Steering Committee, Project Sponsor or Senior Manager is to take responsibility for the business issues associated with the project.

Regular status reports also provide an ongoing history of the project, which become useful in terms of tracking progress, evaluation and review.

The Project Status Report should include, as a minimum, the following:

Status of the project - description, milestones for the last reporting period; milestones for the next reporting period; impact of achievement/non-achievement of milestones for the remaining period of the project. Milestones should reflect any relevant high-level milestones listed in the Business Plan as well as major milestones and achievements from the Project Work Plan (or Project Execution Plan).

Budget Report - with respect to planned expenditure, actual expenditure deficit/surplus and revenue against planned output delivery, if appropriate.

Risk Management Report - specifying any changes to the major risks identified since the previous report and modification to the strategies put in place to manage them; any new risks that have arisen since the last report, as identified in the Risk Register.

Issues Report - including areas of concern, specific problems, and any action/decision that needs to be taken by the Steering Committee or Project Sponsor/Senior Manager, as identified in the Issues Register.

Any general information.

Recommendations.

It is important to keep the report focused and to report on/against milestones and not percentage of work complete.

Keep the report brief and sum up the key points in your project. I recommend this simple format on a maximum of two pages:

1. Report Date

2. Overall Status

3. Project Summary

4. Key Issues

5. Identified Risks

6. Tasks and Next Steps

7. Decisions Needed

8. Key Future Dates

9. Budgeted Cost

10. Spend to Date

When would you develop a Project Status Report?

The frequency of status reporting will vary depending on the size of the project and the requirements of the Steering Committee/Project Sponsor.

With very small projects this may consist of fortnightly consideration of any issues that could affect progress and/or a meeting with the Project Sponsor/Senior Manager.

For large and/or more complex projects the status report forms an integral part of the project, as information for the reports is drawn from the project management processes in place for the project.

What you need before you start

An agreed Project Business Plan or Project Brief.

Knowledge and understanding of the project activities, schedule, issues, risks and budget, stakeholders, contractors and staff.

Knowledge and understanding of issues management and risk management.

Project budgetary information.

Schedule of meetings.

Self-check assessment

Question 1: Explain the different tools and techniques to monitor project progress.

Question 2:Define how to use KPIs?

Question 3: What Makes Up a Change Management Plan?

CHAPTER 5. WRAP UP IT PROJECT

This chapter helps to understand the following:

Finalise project in line with project plan

Conduct handover to required personnel according to organisational procedures

Debrief project team members on conduct and project outcomes

Prepare project report and analyse strengths and weaknesses of project plan

5.1 Finalise the project in line with the project plan

5.2 Conduct handover to required personnel according to organisational procedures

Project closure and hand out

The goal of project management is to obtain stakeholder acceptance of the project result. This means that the stakeholder agrees that the quality specifications of the project parameters have been met. In order to make this go smoothly, the stakeholder and project manager must have a well-documented criterion of performance in place from the beginning of the project. This information should be documented in the project management plan which should include all changes requested through the life of the project.

Objective, measurable criteria are always best, subjective criteria are risky and open to interpretation. There should be no room for doubt or ambiguity, although this is often difficult to achieve.

The project may not be complete when delivered to the stakeholder. Some final project areas that may need to be considered are:

Documentation requirements

Final report

Provision of people trained on operating product of facility

Customer training

Project audit

Update risk and work registers

Settle all invoices

Equipment and hire returns

Warranties and guarantees settled

Update financial systems

Document lessons learned

Although the project close-out and handover are typically the final phase of the project this does not mean that the relevant activities should only commence when the previous stage is complete. On the contrary, it can be seen by the list above that work such as as-built drawings should be developed as the project progresses through the earlier stages and be ready for handover as soon as the work is complete. Finally, project team members need to be reassigned; surplus equipment, materials and supplies disposed of; and facilities released. Close Project or Phase is the process of finalizing all activities for the project, phase, or contract.

The key benefits of this process are the project or phase information is archived, the planned work is completed, and organizational team resources are released to pursue new endeavors.

This process is performed once or at predefined points in the project.

The Close Project or Phase process is another one where the Project Manager takes center stage and will be checking that that all project work is completed and that the project has met its objectives, including work and objectives that were added along the way as the result of approved change requests.

According to A Guide To The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Fifth Edition, The Project Closing Process Group consists of those processes performed to conclude all activities across all Project Management Process Groups to formally complete the project, phase, or contractual obligations. This process group, when completed, verifies that the defined processes are completed within all of the Process Groups to close the project of phase, as appropriate, and formally establishes that the project or project phase is complete (2013, p. 57).

In other words, Project Closing is the combination of the following when applied to a project:

1. Assurance that all the work has been completed,

2. Assurance that all agreed upon project management processes have been executed, and

3. Formal recognition of the completion of a projecteveryone agrees that it is completed.

Project closing is further explained in depth throughout this paper. A comprehensive project closing process would typically include all of the following processes, and may include others, depending on the size, magnitude, complexity, and impact of the project:

4. Making sure all the work that needed to be has been done.

5. Obtaining approval by the project's sponsor and customer (whether internal or external) for the work completed.

6. Reviewing whether or not all organizational governance processes have been executed.

7. Assessing whether or not the necessary project management processes have been applied.

8. Administrative closing of any and all procurements, reviewing that all work on the contract has been completed and that both parties have completed their contractual obligations toward each other.

9. Formally recognizing the completion of a project and its transition to operations.

10. Validating that the project achieved benefits identified in the business case.

11. Capturing of lessons learned: What was done well, and should be documented so it can be repeated in the future? What could have been done better? And if so, how can it have been done better?

12. Disbanding project resources, freeing them to perform other projects and undertake other tasks as required within the organization.

13. Transitioning project deliverables to the customer organization in a manner that warrants seamless operations and support.

CLOSE PROJECT OR PHASE: INPUTS

PROJECT CHARTER

The project charter documents the project success criteria, the approval requirements, and who will sign off on the project. My tip is, specify the office rather than the person.

People are worried that they may be replaced one day by Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning when the truth of the matter is that a few of them could be replaced by a few lines of code.

Avoid the hassle, specify the office rather than the person.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN

All components of the project management plan are an input to this process.

PROJECT DOCUMENTS

Project documents are used on the project but are not considered part of the Project management plan.

They could include:

Assumption log. This records all the assumptions and constraints that guided the technical specifications, estimates, schedule, risks, etc. Assumptions are what you believe to be true for the duration of the project, and constraints are what you believed to be limiting your ability to manage the project.

The basis of estimates. The basis of estimates is used to evaluate how the estimation of duration, cost, resources, and cost control compared to the actual results.

Changelog. This records the status of all change requests throughout the project or phase.

Issue log: Again, to a final check to make sure all issues have been dealt with.

Lessons learned register. The team will have been recording lessons learned throughout the project, and so this is really a final edit to remove all the junk, prune out the ten versions of the same problem, recorded by ten different people, or ten versions of the same problem, recorded by the same person, who has some issues, to make it suitable for transferring to the lessons learned repository.

Milestone list. The milestone list shows the final dates on which the project milestones have been accomplished.

Project communications. Project communications include any and all communications that have been created throughout the project.

Quality control measurements. The quality control measurements document the results of Control Quality activities and demonstrate compliance with the quality requirements.

Quality reports. The information presented in the quality report may include all quality assurance issues managed or escalated by the team, recommendations for improvement, and the summary of findings from the Control Quality process.

Requirements documentation. Requirements documentation is used to demonstrate compliance with the project scope.

Risk register. The risk register provides information on risks that have occurred throughout the project.

Risk report. The risk report provides information on the risk status and is used to check that there are no open risks at the end of the project.

ACCEPTED DELIVERABLES

Accepted deliverables may include approved product specifications, delivery receipts, and work performance documents. Partial or interim deliverables may also be included for phased or canceled projects.

BUSINESS DOCUMENTS

What are business documents? They are documents created outside the project, which result in a project being initiated. The Project Manager uses them but does not update them.

Business documents include:

Business case. The business case documents the business need and the cost-benefit analysis that justify the project. And now is the stage to check if the justification was valid.

Benefits management plan. The benefits management plan outlines the target benefits of the project. This will also be used to determine when to confirm when the benefits are to be verified as achieved, who will check them and the criteria to be used.

AGREEMENTS

In this case, agreements means the contracts that were issued for the project and recorded in the Procurement Management Plan. The actual requirements for formal procurement closure are included in the Procurement Management Plan and can be checked against the terms and conditions of the contracts.

PROCUREMENT DOCUMENTATION

To close the contract, all procurement documentation is collected, indexed, and filed.

ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESS ASSETS

The organizational process assets that can influence the Close Project or Phase process include:

Project or phase closure guidelines or requirements (e.g., lessons learned, final project audits, project evaluations, product validations, acceptance criteria, contract closure, resource reassignment, team performance appraisals, and knowledge transfer).

The configuration management knowledge base containing the versions and baselines of all official organizational standards, policies, procedures, and any project documents.

CLOSE PROJECT OR PHASE: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

EXPERT JUDGMENT

Expertise should be considered from individuals or groups with specialized knowledge or training in the following topics:

Management control,

Audit,

Legal and procurement, and

Legislation and regulations.

DATA ANALYSIS

Data analysis techniques that can be used in project closeout include:

Document analysis. This is used to extract information to record in the Lessons Learned.

Regression analysis. This technique analyzes the interrelationships between different project variables that contributed to the project outcomes to improve performance on future projects. Sometimes this can be combined with Sensitivity Analysis techniques, which involves re-examining the interrelationships, which keeping a single variable constant throughout the analysis, then repeating for each variable, to see which variables had the greatest impact.

Trend analysis can be used to validate the models used in the organization and to implement adjustments for future projects. This is important because there is a tendency to blindly trust business models, even if some weaknesses are beginning to show. The models need to be checked against reality, and then be adjusted or replaced.

Variance analysis can be used to improve the metrics of the organization by comparing what was initially planned against the result

MEETINGS

Meetings, such as close-out reporting meetings, customer wrap-up meetings, lessons learned meetings, and celebration meetings, may be used to confirm that the deliverables have been accepted, to validate that the exit criteria have been met, to formalize the completion of the contracts, to evaluate the satisfaction of the stakeholders, to gather lessons learned, to transfer knowledge and information from the project, and to celebrate success. However, it has been my experience that a celebration meeting works best if held in a restaurant.

CLOSE PROJECT OR PHASE: OUTPUTS

PROJECT DOCUMENTS UPDATES

All project documents may be updated and marked as final versions as a result of project closure and archived in the organizations records management system.

FINAL PRODUCT, SERVICE, OR RESULT TRANSITION

A product, service, or result, once delivered by the project, may be handed over to a different group or organization that will operate, maintain, and support it throughout its life cycle.

This output refers to this transition of the final product, service, or result that the project was authorized to produce(or in the case of phase closure, the intermediate product, service, or result of that phase) from one team to another.

FINAL REPORT

The final report provides a summary of the project performance. It can include information such as:

Summary level description of the project or phase.

Scope objectives, the criteria used to evaluate the scope, and evidence that the completion criteria were met.

Quality objectives, the criteria used to evaluate the project and product quality, the verification and actual milestone delivery dates, and reasons for variances.

Cost objectives, including the acceptable cost range, actual costs, and reasons for any variances.

Summary of the validation information for the final product, service, or result.

Schedule objectives including whether results achieved the benefits that the project was undertaken to address. If the benefits are not met at the close of the project, indicate the degree to which they were achieved and estimate for future benefits realization.

Summary of how the final product, service, or result achieved the business needs identified in the business plan. If the business needs are not met at the close of the project, indicate the degree to which they were achieved an estimate for when the business needs will be met in the future.

Summary of any risks or issues encountered on the project and how they were addressed.

ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESS ASSET UPDATES

Organizational process assets that are updated include:

Project documents. Documentation resulting from the projects activities; for example, project management plan; scope, cost, schedule, and project calendars; and change management documentation.

Operational and support documents. Often, especially in the case of Information Technology projects, the project team operates, supports and maintains the product or service. This is

the time when the support documentation is handed over to the support department, and responsibility for operation is passed to the business.

Project or phase closure documents. These are formal documents that record completion of the project or phase and the transfer of the completed project or phase deliverables to others, such as an operations group or to the next phase. The Project Manager will review prior phase closure documentation, customer acceptance documentation from the Validate Scope process, and the agreement (if applicable) to ensure that all project requirements are completed prior to finalizing the closure of the project.

Lessons learned repository: Lessons learned and knowledge gained throughout the project were maintained in a Lessons learned register, but the final, edited version, is now transferred to the lessons learned repository for use by future projects.

5.3 Debrief project team members on conduct and project outcomes

The debriefing process is conducted once the project activities have come to a close and the project is complete. It allows for transparent feedback by any/all participants in a non-stressful environment.

Reasons for team debriefing sessions

The purpose behind project debriefing is to allow the project team an opportunity to share thoughts, experiences and ideas in a more relaxed environment. It offers a means to evaluate whether the project has met all the requirements and stayed within scope. It helps in identifying issues that may have occurred as well as aids in determining possible root causes.

It also assists leaders in isolating conflicts or other problems, evaluating the team's cohesiveness (without singling anyone out), and in the processes works towards improving team dynamics for future projects.

Finally, debriefing provides a chance to determine whether the processes were successful and identifies which things need to change. Ultimately these sessions provide closure for the project and a chance to celebrate individual and team accomplishments.

Who should be in attendance

The project manager, project sponsor(s), whenever relevant, and preferably the entire project team should attend. This provides an opportunity for all individuals to have input and share their thoughts and suggestions for improving team and project performance going forward.

What broad bucket topics should be covered?

The debriefing process should cover the project goals and whether they were met, things that may have gone wrong, if anything, and why (this should not become a blame game), as well as what things need to change to reduce or stop any issues in the future. It's important to also identify innovative opportunities for improvements, and of course, highlight any accomplishments. Don't forget to voice/show appreciation to all participants and team members.

What shouldn't be covered

There are topics that should be excluded from the debrief, including who didn't get along with who Conflict-based issues shouldn't remain unaddressed at the end of a project, nor argued around others on the team. These issues should be handled behind closed doors. It isn't appropriate to discuss publicly who made mistakes because blame isn't constructive, especially in front of others. It can lead to grudges and resentment. Try to keep in mind debrief meetings should be about being constructive in a project and business sense; any personal gripes should not be aired.

Project management debrief pros

A properly conducted post-project debriefing allows teams to talk with one another in a relaxed setting and learn from one another without time pressures. It also provides a way to set opportunities or continuous improvement in motion. As lessons are learned and knowledge applied you will create a more powerful, cohesive, high-functioning team that has better interaction and communication. Here are some other pros to this essential step in the project management process.

Provides a chance for team members to share past experiences and new ways of doing things that could be beneficial in the future.

Provides a mechanism to identify risks previously not identified.

Offers actionable lessons learned.

Provides a chance to document findings that can be referred to in the future.

HOW TO CONDUCT A DEBRIEF

1. Stop talking at people & start talking with people.

Invite people into your conversation, rather than just telling them what they need to know. For example, compare This is how you hold a surfboard with Jesse, what do you think is the best way to hold a surfboard?

2. Sequence your discussion to prepare your group for talking.

In the same way you use warm-ups and stretches before more strenuous exercise, you also need to warm-up people to get them talking. Heres a quick three-step model for how to conduct a debrief that works a treat:

Ask What questions these questions refer to what happened during an exercise and are used to get the discussion off to a good start. For example, What happened after you feel off the element?

Ask So What questions these questions relate the activity back to the goals of your program, and add meaning to it. For example, Why do you think people stopped talking all of a sudden?

Ask Now What questions these questions drive home the lessons objective by discussing future behaviours and goals. For example, How can you prevent your discussion getting out of control next time?

3. Ask lots of open-ended questions.

The question How are you feeling? is more powerful than Are you feeling cold? Open-ended questions are more likely to provide greater insight and opportunities for people to participate in a two-way conversation.

4. Use a variety of formats to keep your group engaged.

Debriefing is more than just asking your group to circle up and asking a few questions. The first step in learning is engaging the brain, so choose a variety of discussion techniques that are fun, interactive and meaningful to attract peoples attention.

5. Make it easy to see & hear each other.

Consider using circles to conduct your conversation and moving in closer to hear each other. Also, be aware of the impact the wind and the sun may have on your groups ability to see and hear you. For example, it is recommended that you face into the sun, rather than your group, otherwise it will give people just another excuse to look elsewhere. And keep their backs to the distraction of other people, interesting panoramas and other events that will easily distract them from your conversation.

6. Use a neutral response to comments.

People develop many coping skills to make sure they dont look stupid in front of their peers. For example, rather than joining into a discussion right away, some folks prefer to wait for others to make the initial responses. So, if you telegraph your opinion of their responses with Great, Good answer or Exactly right you may encourage some people to delay their response, or not respond at all, because theyll believe that the right answer has already been given. Clearly, this is not a hard and fast rule, but if youre looking to attract lots of input from your group, consider the impact your comments may have.

7. Use what works for you & change what doesnt.

Adapt everything you read here to match the age, needs and characteristics of your particular group, the weather, your environment, the time you have and, of course, your personality.

5.4 Prepare project report and analyse strengths and weaknesses of project plan

SWOT analysis for project management is a simple, yet effective process. It allows the project manager to identify areas that needs improvement. By implementing the correct methodologies for the analysis, it is possible to ensure that a project will be completed on time and within budget. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

The use of SWOT analysis lets the project manager to improve the whole project or individual tasks where better efficiency can be gained. It also mitigates risks associated with the tasks and optimizes the whole process. The team members get to do more with less. Because of the nature of the analysis, it is important to conduct the SWOT analysis during the startup phase. It can provide a solid backbone to the project plan.

Conducting the SWOT Analysis

It is important to have a clear objective during SWOT analysis sessions. That way, each stakeholder understands what is expected of him/her. It is important to conduct SWOT analysis after project closure so that the mistakes done during the project should not be repeated in the next phase.

While the purpose of the SWOT analysis may be clear on paper, its actual implementation can vary. In addition, it is common for the discussion among stakeholders to go off-topic during the session itself. For this reason, it is important to create a set of pre-defined questions. This will serve as the guide for the SWOT analysis session. The project manager may also present his initial set of findings for discussion. Any relevant information will give attendees an opportunity to clear things up. The process results to improved productivity.

Common Questions in SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

Does the organization have all the necessary talent in-house?

Is the budged sufficient to complete all the tasks involved?

What are the benefits of completing the project?

Has the project manager handled similar projects in the past?

How experienced are the team members?

Weaknesses:

Does the organization have the resources to provide contingency funding?

If the team doesnt have all the necessary skills, what areas need to be outsourced?

Is the schedule realistic?

What are the potential drawbacks of the project?

Opportunities

Will this project take advantage of competitor weaknesses?

What are the latest trends in the industry?

Are there new technologies that the organization should be aware of?

Can this project help in different areas of the business?

Threats:

Are the team members difficult to replace?

Has the new technology (if it will be applied) been tested?

Could changing trends affect the project?

Can the capability be copied by competitors?

Self-check assessment

Question 1: What are the inputs elements of the final project report?

Question 2: List and define project documents.

Question 3: How to conduct a debrief?

CHAPTER 6. Identify policy and process improvements

This chapter helps to understand the following:

Identify and analyse opportunities for organisational learning and required changes to processes and policies generated by project

Determine and document opportunities for future developments following project completion and submit to required personnel

Determine and document strategic impact of project and feed into organisations ongoing strategic planning processes

6.4 Lodge all documentation according to organisational procedures

6.1 Identify and analyse opportunities for organisational learning and required changes to processes and policies generated by project

Post implementation review

A post-implementation review is a process to evaluate whether the objectives of the project were met. You can also use it to see how effective the project was managed. This helps to avoid making similar mistakes with future projects and learning how to run the project better.

Post-implementation review is the last step in your project cycle and usually involves an independent party, which can act more objectively in making their determinations about how the project was run. This provides the stakeholders of the project the confidence to know that the objectives of the project were met successfully.

Post implementation review helps us to identify and analyse opportunities for wider organisational learning, including changes to processes or policies generated by the project.

Think of post implementation review as a part of project closure. Its a post-project review or post-implementation review, which is part of your project management responsibilities. Its also a great way to identify project successes, deliverables, achievements and learn lessons from those parts of the project that didnt work out as planned.

How to Conduct a Post-Implementation Review

After the projects deliverables have gone through at least one successful business cycle, you can get started on the review. There are project closure checklists that help frame the process. Here are some of the best practices for conducting the review include the following.

Trust. To get the information you need, you want honesty from your participants. Therefore, tell them you want openness, without fear of retribution. The more critical and truthful their observations about the project are, the more successful the review.

Objectivity. While you want honesty, you dont want sour grapes or interpersonal issues clouding observations with bad feelings or to settle old scores. Seek objectivity, or as close to an impartial critique as can be expected.

Documentation. Like all project management, you want to create a paper trail that illustrates how you went from Point A to Point B. By documenting the practices and procedures that created the successes in the project, youll be able to follow them again in future projects.

Hindsight. As you develop a narrative as to what worked and what didnt, what surprises arose during the project and how you dealt with them, understand that this hindsight vision can also help as you look forward towards new projects.

Improvement. The point of this review process is not to blame individuals or teams for mistakes, but to learn from experience and then apply that knowledge to future projects. Stay focused on whats next, rather than looking back as a means of applying guilt.

Post-Implementation Review Methods

There are many ways to gather the information you want to determine what worked and what didnt in your project. Here are some examples.

Gap Analysis. This method of assessing how a plan differed from the actual application is always a powerful tool to see what benchmarks you met, and which you didnt. You can start with your project charter and see how closely you adhered to your objectives. Look at your deliverables. Are they at a quality level you expected? When there are gaps discovered, figure out how they can be closed.

Project Goals. Simply put, did you achieve the goals of your project? Are your deliverables functioning as planned? What was the error rate of the project? Can the deliverables adjust to changes in the market? How well-trained and supported are end-users? What controls and systems are in place and are they working? Are problems being addressed? Did you planned goal align with your result?

Stakeholders. How satisfied are your stakeholders? Were users needs met? What effect did the project have on them? If there is dissatisfaction, why is that and what can you do to resolve it?

Cost. How much did the project end up costing? What are the costs involved in operating the projects result? Are the costs aligned to the benefits of the project? If this isnt the case, how can you improve the cost next time?

Benefits. Did the project achieve the benefits projected, and if not why and how can that be improved? What opportunities are there to further the results? Are there other changes you could apply to help maximize the projects results?

Lessons. Did the projects deliverable, schedule and budget all meet expectations, and if not why? What were some of the issues that arose during the running of the project and how could they be avoided for the next project? What went well, and what can you learn from that experience?

Report. Document what you learned from the review, whether there is actions needed to get the beneficial results you want and list the lessons youve learned, noting how the project can impact future projects, so you can build on success and avoid problems.

6.2 Determine and document opportunities for future developments following project completion and submit to required personn

After conducting post implementation review and SWOT analysis, you can identify the opportunities for future further developments following project completion. These opportunities must be communicated to the senior management so that they can consider them and make decisions for the future. Communication processes and protocols are to be followed when communicating with the senior management.

The communication processes and protocols have been explained in section 3.1 and 3.2.

6.3 Determine and document strategic impact of project and feed into organisations ongoing strategic planning processes

Measure and Report the Strategic Impact of Projects

Organisations are increasingly competing on a global scale and dealing with projects involving dispersed team members from different cultures and backgrounds. As a result, how initiatives are chosen, as well as managed, is critical to success.

While, in most cases, the Project Management Office (PMO) is created to help project managers perform their roles better, it is also well placed to measure the business impact of projects and initiatives, and in doing so, identify their strategic value.

The best project leaders do not limit their measurement to on-time and on-budget metrics. (Regardless of whether a project is on time and budget if it is unable to demonstrate that it will generate more value than it costs, it will be at risk of being abandoned.)

Instead, project leaders wanting to identify strategic value must adopt a multi-dimensional approach in order to measure the project whats, hows and whys, such as:

What is the project?

Why is the organisation doing this?

How will it fit into the companys overall strategy and help deliver on the strategy?

How are we going to implement this initiative?

This multi-dimensional approach also encourages the PMO and project leaders to think about the vision and mission for the initiative from what resources will be spent on it, to how it will help deliver on the strategy.

While these factors can be hard to measure and communicate, it is becoming increasingly important for project leaders to do so as initiatives grow in complexity

This complexity approach also helps guide PMOs to focus not on what gets done, but how it gets done.

The formula for this multi-dimensional approach involves answering the following questions:

Before the project:

Why the project is being pursued and why is the organisation dedicating resources to it?

Does it align with the strategic goals?

Does everyone involved understand the goals of the project and how it aligns with our strategic goals?

How will the project team be used as a resource for scoping and planning how the initiative will be delivered?

After the project:

Was there good communication and collaboration throughout the project?

Were issues and red flags identified early enough to handle them?

Did the project output meet the executive teams expectations?

To ensure the project team delivers the most measurable impact, PMOs can also embrace the concept of PAM (Purpose, Autonomy, Mastery) which helps tie the teams everyday work back to the organisational strategy.

Purpose the project leader understands how each team members role contributes to the overall success of the initiative. The goal is to equip project managers with a business mind-set in order to understand what it takes to run an initiative as a strategic business endeavour, with appropriate measures.

Autonomy this is about giving team members the space to do their jobs. While each person needs something different in this regard, the key is to stop focusing on what people do or deliver and shift to how people do their jobs.

Because the PMO and project-based workers want to avoid surprises, they tend to dictate how work should get done, but a better and more meaningful measurement focuses on how team members interact with others in the course of the initiative, such as whether they are competing or collaborating.

When relationships have an impact on productivity, cooperation and collaboration are far better than competition in projects and generate greater value and vital partnership.

Mastery when the PMO focuses on the what of a project, it is difficult to justify a budget for training. But if the focus shifts to how the project will get done, it is easier to make the case for it.

Measuring the ROI for training is not about the money spent, but about identifying and defining success. When team members are trained to be valuable project contributors, the PMO can better assess and select the right projects and ensure more repeatable and predictable project processes.

Adopting this multi-dimensional approach is a proven way to take initiatives to a new level, as well as providing organisations with further insight into the attributes, skills and behaviours that contribute to the highest levels of success.

By defining these differentiators at an individual and team level, organisations can also take steps to reward employees accordingly, as well as upskill when necessary.

Self-check assessment

Question 1: Briefly explain how to Conduct a Post-Implementation Review.

Question 2: Explain the communication process.

Question 3: Explain the purpose of PAM.

Question 4: Explain how we can measure and report the strategic impact of projects.

Bibliography:

https://www.projectmanager.com/project-planning

https://rapidbi.com/strategic-analysis-and-planning/

https://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSC-Basics/Strategic-Planning-Basics

https://www.executestrategy.net/blog/5-key-elements-strategic-plan/

https://www.greycampus.com/blog/project-management/project-management-how-to-collect-requirements-for-your-project-effectively

https://www.business.gov.au/planning/templates-and-tools/industry-factsheets/information-media-and-telecommunications-industry-fact-sheet#legislation

https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/risk-analysis-project-management-7070

https://jaxenter.com/write-project-specification-135067.html

https://mymanagementguide.com/terms-of-reference-tor-template/

https://www.projectinsight.net/project-management-basics/basic-project-budget

https://project-management.com/5-must-have-skills-for-project-management/

http://www.projectengineer.net/types-of-project-resources/

https://www.b2binternational.com/publications/stakeholder-research/

https://project-management.com/understanding-responsibility-assignment-matrix-raci-matrix/

https://www.cio.com/article/2395825/project-management/project-management-how-to-design-a-successful-raci-project-plan.html

https://www.greycampus.com/blog/project-management/project-communication-process

https://www.brighthubpm.com/certification/85770-pmbok-guide-project-communications-management/

https://4squareviews.com/2018/02/09/6th-edition-pmbok-guide-process-4-5-monitor-and-control-project-work-tools-techniques/

https://www.projectmanager.com/training/8-essential-kpi-metrics-teams

https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/track-project-resources

http://2020projectmanagement.com/resources/project-lifecycle-and-methodology/project-close-out-and-handover--a-general-overview

https://www.cio.com/article/3119749/project-management/project-management-to-debrief-or-not-to-debrief.html

https://www.playmeo.com/how-to-conduct-a-debrief/

https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/swot-analysis-in-project-management.php

INCLUDEPICTURE "https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c199121cef372155024fcab/t/5c493fd7352f534aa64388ca/1558918266257/?format=1500w" * MERGEFORMATINET

ICT Project Report Template:

ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects

Australian College of Business Intelligence

Version: 22.0

Date Modified: July 2022

Disclaimer:

Contents TOC o "1-3" h z u

1. Introduction and Objectives PAGEREF _Toc110767408 h 41A. Organisational and Strategic Objectives PAGEREF _Toc110767409 h 41B. Operational Objectives PAGEREF _Toc110767410 h 41C. Requirements Summary PAGEREF _Toc110767411 h 41D. Output and deliverables PAGEREF _Toc110767412 h 41E. Industrial standards and legislations PAGEREF _Toc110767413 h 51F. Risk analysis report PAGEREF _Toc110767414 h 52. Project Plan PAGEREF _Toc110767415 h 62A. Terms and references PAGEREF _Toc110767416 h 62B. Summary of budget planning PAGEREF _Toc110767417 h 62C. Summary of skill sets required PAGEREF _Toc110767418 h 62D. Summary of computing and other physical resources PAGEREF _Toc110767419 h 72E. Summary of timelines, schedule and critical path with Gantt chart PAGEREF _Toc110767420 h 72F. Summary of communication protocols with the clients and sub-contractors PAGEREF _Toc110767421 h 73. ICT Project Team PAGEREF _Toc110767422 h 83A. Roles and responsibilities PAGEREF _Toc110767423 h 83B. Protocols for team communications PAGEREF _Toc110767424 h 83C. Protocols for reporting processes PAGEREF _Toc110767425 h 84. Project Monitoring and Control PAGEREF _Toc110767426 h 94A. Summary of project management tools and methodologies PAGEREF _Toc110767427 h 94B. Summary of key performance index for each team members PAGEREF _Toc110767428 h 94C. Protocol for project plan control PAGEREF _Toc110767429 h 104D. Protocol for project resource control PAGEREF _Toc110767430 h 10

1. Introduction and ObjectivesThe managing director of AnimeCoup Pty Ltd, Mr Jeremy Chu, has been in animation industry and games development for the past 12 years. Mr. Chu was one of the few Australian anime developers who were involved in the development of the famous 'big feet' project.

1A. Organisational and Strategic Objectives- He wants to expand in the market and looking for a new game.

To launch his own new games for mobile platforms with strong marketing over the social media.

1B. Operational Objectives- Improving HR Processes

Operational plans for your human resources department should help meet strategic goals such as improved recruiting, retention and labor cost management.

-Increased IT Capabilities

If a business relies on its website and social media to sell its products, operational objectives will target ways to make it easier for customers to buy online and share information about the business at the best possible costs.

One operational objective might include adding or upgrading online sales capabilities, which includes optimizing a shopping cart and checkout process.

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/operational-objectives-business-62174.htmlBased on the case study also these are the requirements

Identify the games genre in relation to the mobile market

Propose a new game for Mr. Chu

Lead the development of the computer game

Recruit sub-contractors for games programming

Recruit sub-contractors for social media marketing

Oversees the reporting and communications

Oversees the handover and training.

Report to Mr. Chu on the project progress

1C. Requirements SummaryGames Requirements

The purpose of the game

Simple, easy, innovative mobile game

Game is free, multiplayer with monetized plan

- Functional requirements: -

Non-functional requirements

Software and Hardware Requirements

Software development kit:

Platform/Framework: -

Code Editor: -

Development System Requirement: -

Platform/framework:

Mac System Requirement

Windows System Requirement

1D. Output and deliverablesWrite your answer here

1E. Industrial standards and legislationsWrite your answer here

1F. Risk analysis reportWrite your answer here

2. Project Plan2A. Terms and referencesWrite your answer here

2B. Summary of budget planningWrite your answer here

2C. Summary of skill sets requiredWrite your answer here

2D. Summary of computing and other physical resourcesWrite your answer here

2E. Summary of timelines, schedule and critical path with Gantt chartWrite your answer here

2F. Summary of communication protocols with the clients and sub-contractorsWrite your answer here

3. ICT Project Team3A. Roles and responsibilitiesWrite your answer here

3B. Protocols for team communicationsWrite your answer here

3C. Protocols for reporting processesWrite your answer here

4. Project Monitoring and Control4A. Summary of project management tools and methodologiesWrite your answer here

4B. Summary of key performance index for each team membersWrite your answer here

4C. Protocol for project plan controlWrite your answer here

4D. Protocol for project resource controlWrite your answer here

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StudentAssessment Guide:

ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects

Australian College of Business Intelligence

Version: 22.0

Date Modified: July 2022

Disclaimer:

Contents TOC o "1-3" h z u

1. Assessment Information PAGEREF _Toc112598717 h 5A. Purpose of assessment PAGEREF _Toc112598718 h 5B. What you are required to do PAGEREF _Toc112598719 h 5C. Competencies being assessed PAGEREF _Toc112598720 h 5D. Important resources for completing this assessment PAGEREF _Toc112598721 h 6F. A note on questions with role plays PAGEREF _Toc112598722 h 72. Assessment Coversheet PAGEREF _Toc112598723 h 83. Assessment Questions PAGEREF _Toc112598724 h 9A. Task A - Demonstrate IT project knowledge PAGEREF _Toc112598725 h 9Task A. A1 PAGEREF _Toc112598726 h 9Task A. A2 PAGEREF _Toc112598727 h 10Task A. A3 PAGEREF _Toc112598728 h 11Task A. A4 PAGEREF _Toc112598729 h 12Task A. A5 PAGEREF _Toc112598730 h 13Task A. A6 PAGEREF _Toc112598731 h 14Task A. A7 PAGEREF _Toc112598732 h 15B. Task B - Create the ICT Project Report PAGEREF _Toc112598733 h 16Task B. B1 PAGEREF _Toc112598734 h 16C. Task C Wrap up IT project PAGEREF _Toc112598735 h 18Task C. C1 PAGEREF _Toc112598736 h 18Task C. C2 PAGEREF _Toc112598737 h 19Task C. C3 PAGEREF _Toc112598738 h 20Task C. C4 PAGEREF _Toc112598739 h 23D. Task D - Document lessons learnt PAGEREF _Toc112598740 h 24Task D. D1 PAGEREF _Toc112598741 h 244. Student Self Checklist PAGEREF _Toc112598742 h 26A. Student Self Checklist for Tasks A - D PAGEREF _Toc112598743 h 26

1. Assessment InformationA. Purpose of assessmentThis assessment will develop your skills and knowledge required to identify, plan, control and finalise complex information and communications technology (ICT) projects.

The assessment is designed to help you gather evidence of your competence against the requirements of the unit of competency, as outlined below. Your evidence may take a variety of forms and must be:

Authentic your own work

Valid related to the competency

Sufficient appropriate quantity and quality

Current recent proof of your skills and knowledge

B. What you are required to doFor this assessment, you are required to complete 4 tasks:

Task A Demonstrate IT project knowledge

Task B Create the ICT Project Report

Task C Wrap up IT project

Task D Document lessons learnt

Tasks of this assessment require you to use the provided case study information relating to the fictional company, AnimeCoup Pty Ltd.

C. Competencies being assessedElements

To achieve competency in this unit students must demonstrate their ability to:

1. Identify planning needs

2. Prepare ICT project plan

3. Assemble ICT project team and commence work

4. Manage IT project

5. Wrap up IT project

6. Identify policy and process improvements

Performance Evidence

Evidence of the ability to:

Design, implement, manage and finalise a complex Information and Communications Technology (ICT) project.

Manage planning processes, scheduling, human resources, reporting and respond to contingencies

Align projects with organisational strategies and requirements

Assess outcomes and provide recommendations to refine and improve future ICT project management processes.

Knowledge Evidence

The candidate must be able to demonstrate knowledge to complete the tasks outlined in the elements, performance criteria and foundation skills of this unit, including knowledge of:

key features of risk management planning and processes

computer software functions and operation, including relevant proprietary software relevant to planning direct complex ICT projects

legislation, codes and standards relating to project specified in performance evidence

contingencies for planning for time slippages

sustainability requirements and ratings, including:

reporting mechanisms

conservation of energy

management of other resources

tools and models of project management

organisational frameworks and functions relevant to planning direct complex ICT projects including:

enterprises

government bodies

industry associations.

For further information on the competencies of this unit, please refer to:

https://training.gov.au/Training/Details/ICTPMG617

D. Important resources for completing this assessmentTo complete this assessment, please refer to the following resources provided on Moodle:

ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects learner guide

ICTPMG617 Marking guide

ICTPMG617 Case study folder

ICTPMG617 Observation checklist

F. A note on questions with role playsThe following question involves a role play:

Task C, Question C3

For this question, as outlined below, you will be assessed on your ability to role play presenting to staff members at AnimeCoup Pty Ltd. This question requires you to record yourself delivering a training presentation, then share this video with your Trainer.

Your Trainer & Assessor watch this recording for Task C, Question C3 and complete an observation checklist.

2. Assessment CoversheetStudent Name: Reema Al-Bakri

Student ID: Contact Number: 0476054428

Email: Reema.albakri@gmail.com

Trainer / Assessor Name: Rudi

Qualification: ICT60220 Advanced Diploma of Information Technology

Unit of Competency: ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects

Assessment Tasks: A. Demonstrate IT project knowledge

B. Create the ICT Project Report

C. Wrap up IT project

D. Document lessons learnt

Due Date: 11th of Sep Date Submitted: 11th of Sep

Declaration: I have read and understood the following information at the beginning of this assessment guide (please tick):

Assessment information

Submitting assessments

Plagiarism and referencing

I declare this assessment is my own work and where the work is of others, I have fully referenced that material.

Name (please print): Reema Al-Bakri

Student signature: Reema Al-Bakri

Date: 11th of Sep

3. Assessment QuestionsA. Task A - Demonstrate IT project knowledge

Instructions:

Read the case study information provided on Moodle in the folder called 2 Case study on the company AnimeCoup. Then answer the question below.

Task A. A1A1. Explain the concepts of risk management planning and processes:

Identify the potential risks to the enterprise in the case study

Rate the risks as high, medium, and low depending on the frequency of occurrence and severity of impacts.

Discuss the mitigation plan for the selected high rated risks

NOTE: Refer to pages 21-25 of the ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects learner guide to inform your answer. Answer in 200-350 words.

Identify the potential risks to the enterprise in the case study

Based on the learner guide project team members at various levels identify and handle risks in different flavors. However, this will be ineffective without a structured risk management framework, as this leads to:

Incomplete impact evaluation, leading to loss of:

Knowledge of the overall impact on the project objectives, like scope, time, cost, and quality

Identification of secondary or new risks arising from the already identified risks

Lack of transparency and a communication gap within and outside the team

Rate the risks as high, medium, and low depending on the frequency of occurrence and severity of impacts.

According to the learner guide, risk analysis involves examining how project outcomes and objectives might change due to the impact of the risk event.

Probability of Risk Occurrence

a. High probability (80 % x 100%)

b. Medium-high probability (60 % x < 80%)

c. Medium-Low probability (30 % x < 60%)

d. Low probability (0 % < x < 30%)

Risk Impact

a. High Catastrophic (Rating A 100)

b. Medium Critical (Rating B 50)

c. Low Marginal (Rating C 10)

Therefore, my inputs in the table as below

Project Objective C Rating 10 B Rating 50 A Rating 100

Cost Cost increase by 10% Cost increase by 20% Cost increase by more than 50%

Schedule Overall project schedule delay by 0 day Overall project schedule delay by 2 week Overall project schedule delay by 4weeks

Scope Scope decease barely noticeable Minor areas of scope are affected Major areas of scope are affected; scope reduction unacceptable to the client

Quality Quality reduction barley noticeable Quality reduction does not affect vital functionally Quality reduction requires client approval

Discuss the mitigation plan for the selected high rated risks

To mitigate risk of new product production, a project team may decide to implement product testing to avoid the risk of product failure before the final production is approved.

Assume and accept risk; The acceptance strategy can involve collaboration between team members to identify the possible risks of a project and whether the consequences of the identified risks are acceptable.

Avoidance of schedule implications can be implemented by identifying issues that could come up that would affect the timeline of the project. Important deadlines, due dates and final delivery dates can be affected by risks, such as being overly optimistic about the timeline of a project.

Recruit sub-contractors for games programming

Recruit sub-contractors for social media marketing

Oversees the reporting and communications

Oversees the handover and training.

Mr. Chu has allocated $500,000 and 3 months for the project.

Resources: -

Learner Guide: ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects - pages 21-25

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/risk-mitigation-strategiesTask A. A2A2. Outline computer software functions and operation, including relevant proprietary software:

Advise on the required software tools and technologies to complete this project

Report the pricing and availability of software and hardware components

Compare the use of proprietary software vs open source software in games design

NOTE: Refer to pages 38-40 of the ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects learner guide to inform your answer. Answer in 200-350 words.

Advise on the required software tools and technologies to complete this project

Asus Laptop, and Microsoft software.

Hardware Dell or Asus laptop

Gaming software Technical specification

Software Unity

Virtual Machine Software VMware or Virtual Box

Game Simulator not needed at this stage

Report the pricing and availability of software and hardware components

Hardware Evaluation Dell Laptop- Model No Asus Laptop Model No

Specifications: - RAM: 16GB LPDDR3

Storage: 512 SSD

Exclusive ErgoLift design

The 13. 3 Full HD NanoEdge display

8th generation Intel Core i7-8565U processor

Battery Life: More than 13 hours

RAM: 16GB DDR

Storage: 1TB SSD

CPU: AMD Octa-Core Ryzen 7 4700U

Display: 14 FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Anti-glare Display 100% RGB

GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics

Battery Life: More than 16 hours

Compare the use of proprietary software vs open-source software in games design

Asus is recommended as technical specification meets the benchmarks

Cost is within budget

Delivery is within a week

Resources: -

Learner Guide: ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects - pages 38-40

Task A. A3A3. Identify relevant current legislation, codes and standards in regard to games development in terms of adult contents and violence level.NOTE: Refer to pages 16-20 of the ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects learner guide to inform your answer. Answer in 100-250 words.

According to the learner guide and standards development games in Australia, a platform licence must be sought from thegameconsole (hardware) manufacturer in order to commence coding. Thegamemust be coded to operate with the chosen. However, Tin Australia the government has outlined a digital economy strategy that has the overall goal of making Australia a leading digital economy and society by 2030. They called out digital gaming alongside fintech and regtech as high potential sectors that it wants to target with investment and other collaboration.

The new digital games tax incentive will provide a 30 per cent refundable tax offset in order to make Australia a more attractive destination for the growing global gaming sector to set up shop and promote what it is hoped will be an export industry.

A number of famous mobile game smash hits have already been made on Australian shores, including Fruit Ninja (produced by Halfbrick Studios in Brisbane) and Crossy Road (produced by Hipster Whale in Melbourne).

The offset will start from July 1, 2022, following industry consultation to see who and to what the incentive should apply. Not all companies are pure play gaming companies businesses from animation studios to marketing teams often produce games as part of their operations.

However, COMPUTER. SOCIETY. ACS CODE OF ETHICS. The ACS Code of Ethics ispart of the ACS Constitution. As an ACS member you must uphold and advance the honour, dignity and effectiveness of being a professional.

Also, LEGISLATION AND INDUSTRY CODES AND STANDARDS MAY INCLUDE:

Australian Computer Society Code of Ethics

Sector-specific impacts on the project design and delivery.

Key legislation & initiatives

Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct, unfair practices)

Australian Consumer Law (ACL)

Broadcasting Services Act 1992

Telecommunications Act 1997

Television Licence Fees Act 1964

Do Not Call Register Act 2006

Spam Act 2003

Privacy Act 1988

Disability Discrimination Act 1992: World Wide Web Access

Interactive Gambling Act 2001

Public Lending Right Act 1985

Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006.

Resources: -

Learner Guide: ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects - pages 16-20

https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/gaming-industry-tax-offset-brings-standards-in-line-with-film-tv-20210506-p57peghttps://web.science.mq.edu.au/~mattr/courses/object_oriented_development_practices/7/notes.html

Task A. A4A4. Explain contingency planning for time slippages

NOTE: Refer to pages 45 of the ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects learner guide to inform your answer. Answer in 100-250 words.

According to learner guide page 45, contingency plan is essentially a Plan B. Its a backup plan in place for when things go differently than expected. In other words, a contingency plan in project management is a defined, actionable plan that is to be enacted if an identified risk becomes a reality.

When to use a contingency plan

Contingency plans can only be created for identified risks, not unidentified or unknown risks. Since, if you dont know what your risk is, its impossible to plan for it.

It should be noted that contingency plans are not only put in place to anticipate when things go wrong. They can also be created to take advantage of strategic opportunities.

Time Contingency

Tasks slip for all types of reason. Typical high-risk reasons are:

Lack of resource availability or late start

Resource lacks appropriate skills

Issues prolong the work

Requirements are not clearly defined

Designing and creating for the first time

Hand-off was late from another department

Etc

As tasks slip, there are multiple ways to address the slippage:

If the late task is not on the critical path, finish as soon as possible

If the late task is on the critical path, determine if other tasks need to be started without the late task finishing

Possibly add more resources

Work more hours in the same duration (evenings, weekends)

Possibly adjust requirements or scope

Make up the lost time elsewhere in the schedule

Use contingency, if available

Etc

Resources: -

Learner Guide: ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects - pages 45

Task A. A5A5. Explain sustainability requirements and ratings, including:

Describe available online collaborative development platform

Describe how online platform is useful for improved sustainability

Describe how personnel will communicate with each other in most effective manner

NOTE: Refer to pages 8-10 of the ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects learner guide to inform your answer. Answer in 100-250 words.

Describe available online collaborative development platform

A collaboration platform is a category of business software that adds broad social networking capabilities to work processes.

Some examples of providing services on collaboration platforms are emails, personal and group calendars, video meetings, collaborative documents, and message notes.

Describe how online platform is useful for improved sustainability

It helps organizations use digital to contribute to sustainability of the planet and people.

The Internet helps to bring sustainability to the entire population, with up-to-date information and day-to-day solutions, through which the internet user can make their life more sustainable. In this way, we can communicate globally, without borders.

https://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-life/how-does-the-internet-help-with-sustainability/?_adin=02021864894Describe how personnel will communicate with each other in most effective manner

Effective communication is the process of exchanging ideas, thoughts, opinions, knowledge, and data so that the message is received and understood with clarity and purpose. When we communicate effectively, both the sender and receiver feel satisfied.

Resources: -

Learner Guide: ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects - pages 8-10

https://www.techtarget.com/searchcontentmanagement/definition/collaboration-platformhttps://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-life/how-does-the-internet-help-with-sustainability/?_adin=02021864894https://www.coursera.org/articles/communication-effectiveness

Task A. A6 NOT FINISHED

A6. Explain tools and models of project management:

Demonstrate the use of Gantt chart and any other appropriate project management tools

Demonstrate the use of Microsoft Project or its equivalent

NOTE: Refer to pages 42-45 of the ICTPMG617 Plan and direct complex ICT projects learner guide to inform your answer. Answer in 100-250 words.

Demonstrate the use of Gantt chart and any other appropriate project management tools

1. Describing Scope, Time, and Cost constraints in project management

Time constraint: The time constraint refers to the projects schedule for completion, including the deadlines for each phase of the project, as well as the date for rollout of the final deliverable.

Scope constraint: The scope of a project defines its specific goals, deliverables, features, and functions, in addition to the tasks required to complete the project.

Cost constraint: The cost of the project, often dubbed the projects budget, comprises all of the financial resources needed to complete the project on time, in its predetermined scope. Keep in mind that cost does not just mean money for materials it encompasses costs for labor, vendors, quality control, and other factors, as well.

https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-are-constraints-in-project-management/2. Identify the Scope, Time, and Cost constraints of the case project based on the case scenario.

Scope: - to launch his own new games for mobile platforms with strong marketing over the social media.

Time: - 3 months for the project

Cost: - $500,000

Compile the above findings to write a preliminary project statement (mission statement). The mission statement should address all objectives and constraints.

The objective of the project is to design and develop a new game for mobile platforms in 3 months within $500K budget acquire all necessary resources and smoothly hand over the game for commercialization.

https://www.wix.com/blog/amp/2019/02/how-to-write-a-mission-statement?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=13774768254^126077909642&experiment_id=^^531699814043^^_DSA&gclid=Cj0KCQjwuuKXBhCRARIsAC-gM0iVu2fh_RTFaHZcFeesaZBXjJdjrXrM79C6XiLfS3C7E0535H3vL9QaArJxEALw_wcBPerform the feasibility study of the case study project following the diagram shown below.

Procedures to conduct feasibility study

Step 1: Review of master plan findings