Pm592 Quiz1

This is to ensure that the necessary raw materials and physical resources are available at each stage, and that the workforce on site has the right skills for the scheduled work. The project management team will need to produce a series of planning documents that can be accessed throughout the project. Each member of the project management team must know their role and responsibilities, including which sections of the workforce they will be directly managing.

An old adage-plan the work and work the plan, in essence this is the key to successful project management. Project Managers (PM) must first plan out the project and then monitor and control the execution of the program work. There is a tendency for projects to short change the planning process. This is a common mistake. The time spent properly planning will result in reduced cost and duration, and increased quality over the life of the project. Using tried and true best practices for a PM will provide assurance that the program /project will be beneficial and successful.

Describe common practices to estimate the duration of project activities as well as real reasons that cause project delays.

IT projects are influenced by various factors that ultimately cause a project to either reach successful completion or face heavy challenges. Planning is one of the key factors among these. Good planning comprises of determining project objectives, documenting those objectives, allocation of clear responsibility and accountability of various tasks, creating schedule by taking into account scope and budget specifications and continuous revision to the plan based on evaluation. Additionally, maintaining control over schedule, scope and budget, is another factor that plays an important role. Certain factors like organizational changes, technological changes etc also have a big impact on IT projects.

We are here to discuss the “Theme Park” project that we were set to complete. To date we are 40% complete with the project. We currently do not have any actual costs associated with the project so we can assume that they are in order. However, I think that we should still look into the matter since we were given a budget guideline to follow.

The first step will be to look at the goals of the project, and align them with the mission of the company. Systematically, the project will be broken into phases: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Budgeting, Evaluating, and Reporting. Each phase will be further broken down into tasks and placed into a work breakdown structure. From this view, one is able to see the entire project duration, critical path, and milestones. The Planning phase is integral in any project. This phase of the project defines project objectives, mission, goals, and approach. In addition, outlining key elements of the project is critical: performance expectations, risks analysis, and contingency plans. However, after completion

By using the proper resources for the structure of planning it helps the organization of the team and last but not least each team will be able to reflect on the change while the manager evaluates the process. After the new changes are put in place it is vital for the manager or leader to complete the evaluation of the project planning in order to see how the changes put in place made the company improve. This is the time which important decisions are made based on the result of the beginning changes.

During project planning, project teams complete the bulk of their planning work preparing the functional specification and solution design and preparing work plans, cost estimates, and schedules for the various deliverables which they roll up into a master project plan and master schedule. Project planning follows envisioning and is kicked off after the project team meets the requirements of the Vision/Scope Approved Management Review. Prior to

As the project leader, my responsibility included preparing a schedule on how to complete the project and also assigning tasks to the members. I ensured that I planned the project well so as to ensure that every member received an assignment that they qualified to complete and also allocated sufficient time for completing the project. Since I had other school assignments to complete, I made sure that I planned my work well so that to be able to complete other assignments within the required time. I managed to foresee the completion of the project, and I never had problems in completing my other duties. Something that can make planning effective in the future involves all the personnel. So that the planning can be successful, it is essential to ensure that you involve all the relevant people. In this way, it helps in creating a commitment to the plan and also its

relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives. project management utilizes the systems approach to management by having functional personnel assigned to a specific project (Kerzner, 2006).

The nature and scope of a project is determined at the initiation stage. This involves analyzing the business needs, developing goals, budgets, tasks, deliverables, and the stakeholder analysis. The project planning stage determines the planning team, develops the scope, and identifies work breakdown structure and activities that will be needed to complete deliverables. The planning stage also estimates time and cost activities, develop schedule and risk plan, and gain formal approval for work to begin. The executing stage involves all processes used to meet the project requirement and involves managing people and resources. The process that entails the identification of potential problems and

Planning is a process of establishing a mission with clear goals as a means to achieve them. Good planning requires special skills and perspectives allowing decision-makers to understand the challenges they are facing and apply the most effective solution to a problem. In order to achieve success, one must plan accordingly. Planning can be short term or long term. Short term plans are done on daily basis and are easier to achieve than long term plans. Long term plans are also known as strategic plans and are used to achieve a long range vision or mission of a company. In both methods of planning, short term and long term, is necessary to achieve top notch results. Like in any other process, there are both benefits and pitfalls to a

There are a number of benefits that can be achieved through effective project planning. For instance, Devaux (1999) reports that, "Projects that are well planned become shorter and cheaper" (p. 19). By contrast, projects that lack effective planning tend to expand to follow Parkinson's Law and fill

Budgeting in project planning is parallel with development of schedule. Budgeting can be determined as costs of defined activities, at the initial stages of project planning. The process of budgeting is highly dependent on length of the tasks, number of associates assigned for that and resources assigned to the project. Initially budget estimation will be on the organization available funds. Later, with the internal and external parameters, budget size may increase or decrease depending on the project activities. Till actual costs are measured and compared with the actions, budgeting serves as control mechanism for the planning. For executive parameters, budget fairly set parameters. When project starts and all objectives are put into action, the scope, budget or schedule needs adjusting.

With the schedule, the project team can plan the step-by-step process/activities in building the end product. By analyzing the project activities and its interrelationships (works that are done before and after a specific activity), the project team can visualize and build the overall plan on paper before actually doing it. And if the project manager sees that a specific activity is not necessary or lacking, he/she can refine the plan in order to achieve the goal at its best.