Project Planning and Management

Name: Sabawoon Gahiz Father Name: Mohammad Yasin Enrollment No: 32SRD00805-12 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Declaration

I Sabawoon Gahiz hereby declare that the present assignment entitled on Project Planning and

Management is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree course of Post Graduate

Diploma Programme in Sustainable Rural Develoment (A Distance Mode Programme of NIRD and

UoH), is a bonafide record of work done by me.

I further state that no part of the assignment has been submitted for a degree or diploma or any other

similar title of this or any other university.

Place: AIRD/MRRD, Kabul Afghanistan

Date: November-2012

Sabawoon Gahiz


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POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT (PGD-SRD)

3rd Batch (2012), 2nd Semester Course SRD - 505: Project Planning and Management

ASSIGNMENT ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Block - 1: Project Planning

1. Describe the lifecycle of a project?

Answer:

Every project, regardless of scope or complexity, goes through a series of stages from conception to

completion. These phases of a project life cycle are synonymous to life cycle of living beings. There is no

universal consensus on the number of phases in a project cycle. an understanding of the life cycle is important

to successful completion of the project as it facilitates typical project consists of four phases:

conceptualization (initiation), planning, execution and termination (closure). each phase is marked by one or

more deliverables such as concept note, feasibility report, implementation plan, HRD plan, resource

allocation plan, evaluation report etc.

1.1. Project Conceptualization (Initiation)

Project Initiation is the first phase in the Project Life Cycle and essentially involves starting up the

project. You initiate a project by defining its purpose and scope, the justification for initiating it and the

solution to be implemented. You will also need to recruit a suitably skilled project team, set up a Project

Office and perform an end of Phase Review. The Project Initiation phase involves the following six key

steps:

1.2. Project Planning

After defining the project and appointing the project team, you're ready to enter the detailed Project

Planning phase. This involves creating a suite of planning documents to help guide the team throughout

the project delivery. The Planning Phase involves completing the following 10 key steps:


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1.3. Project Execution

With a clear definition of the project and a suite of detailed project plans, you are now ready to enter the

Execution phase of the project. This is the phase in which the deliverables are physically built and

presented to the customer for acceptance. While each deliverable is being constructed, a suite of

management processes are undertaken to monitor and control the deliverables being output by the

project. These processes include managing time, cost, quality, change, risks, issues, suppliers, customers

and communication. Once all the deliverables have been produced and the customer has accepted the

final solution, the project is ready for closure.


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1.4. Project Execution

Project Closure involves releasing the final deliverables to the customer, handing over project

documentation to the business, terminating supplier contracts, releasing project resources and

communicating project closure to all stakeholders. The last remaining step is to undertake a Post

Implementation Review to identify the level of project success and note any lessons learned for future

projects.

Note: you can prefer the below table for further explantion.

Example: From the below figure it will be seen that there are, or should be, four distinct project periods which make up the typical life span of a well run project. These phases are shown as

• Concept • Planning


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• Execution • Transfer.

As an aid to memory, these phases may be readily recalled by the letters C-D-E-F standing for: Conceive Develop Execute, and Finish.

above figure also shows typical activities which are required within each phase for building, say, a process

facility. Of course, within each phase a number of sub-phases or stages can be identified, which relate to the

typical construction project. But for our purposes, the four phases shown are generic to any type of

construction project, and serve to underline the vital importance of progression from concept to planning, if

the project is to be successfully implemented.

Thus, these first two phases, often referred to as the feasibility and engineering phases, are the opportunity to

"build the project on paper", while the third and fourth phases, which include preparing detailed drawings and

specifications, encompass the physical implementation of the project. Note particularly that submission

approvals are called for at the end of each of the first two phases, and commissioning and completion

approvals are typically required towards the ends of the latter two phases. Thus, each phase is like a mini-

project with its own objectives and constraints. And so it should be seen to be, and conducted accordingly.

The successful conclusion of each of the phases are major milestones, which are really like "gates" between

the phases, and which perform the function of major "Executive Control Points". Some projects somehow

manage to slip through these gates without being in full compliance with project requirements to that point.


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Inevitably, such projects find themselves being re-cycled back to the earlier phase - to the detriment of the

final project cost and schedule.

Block - 2: Project Management

2. Specify situations wherein we can use simple random sampling and stratified random sampling for

carrying out impact evaluation of a developmental project?

Answer:

Simple Random Sampling:

The purpose is to produce a sample without any prior

knowledge about of particular characteristics that

can be considered to be representative of the

primary stakeholders being affected by a project

intervention. The first step involved in random

sampling is to name or number of the sampling

units in the sampling frame (population) from

which we want to draw a sample (e.g.

Villages, houses, people, families, landholdings etc.)

so that every unit in the sampling frame has

an equal chance being selected for the sample.

Simple random sampling involves selecting at

random a group of (sampling) units from a

population using a random number table. A variant

of this method is systematic sampling in which

we select a sample at pre-determined intervals ( for

example, every seventh house) but this is

considered to be a pure random sample as takes

into account predetermined element.

Stratified sampling procedure:

It differs in that the population is first divided into

different sub-groups (or strata) based on certain

predetermined characteristics, for example, marginal

farmer, small farmer etc in a survey involving

estimation of crop yields. Then, from each stratum a

random sample is drawn (using random number

tables) or a systematic sampling procedure is

adopted by drawing, for example, every fifth

farmer from each stratum.

In large scale M&E surveys, random sampling is

more frequently used than non random sampling

procedures (described below). However random

sampling is always not possible especially in cases

where there is not enough time to prepare a

complete list of sampling units. Census records,

electoral lists, revenue records at the village level

which consist of names of the farmers belonging

to different landholding groups are the usual

sources for drawing samples but these lists are

often incomplete, inaccurate and dated. This does

not necessarily mean that we must adopt non-

random sampling procedures because they often

result in high margin of error. However, random

sampling may not be very appropriate when

we deal with a very small sample size since it is

unlikely to be representative enough and therefore


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not able to lead to accurate conclusions about the

whole population.

We can illustrate them very well with the images below:

Simple Random Sampling

Do you remember how simple random sampling works? Visually, it's just numbering each individual and

randomly selecting a certain number of them. Here's the image we used in the previous section:

Do you remember how simple random sampling works? Visually, it's just numbering each individual and

randomly selecting a certain number of them. Here's the image we used in the previous section:

Stratified Sampling

Stratified sampling is different. With this technique, we separate the population using some characteristic, and

then take a proportional random sample from each. A stratified sample is obtained by separating the

population into non-overlapping groups called strata and then obtaining a proportional simple random

sample from each group. The individuals within each group should be similar in some way.

Visually, it might look something like the image below. With our population, we can easily separate the

individuals by color.


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Once we have the strata determined, we need to decide how many individuals to select from each stratum.

(Man, that's a weird word!) The key here is that the number selected should be proportional. In our case, 1/4

of the individuals in the population are blue, so 1/4 of the sample should be blue as well. Working things out,

we can see that a stratified (by color) random sample of 4 should have 1 blue, 1 green, and 2 reds.

Example: One easy example using a stratified technique would be a sampling of people at ECC. To make

sure that a sufficient number of students, faculty, and staff are selected, we would stratify all individuals by


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their status - students, faculty, or staff. (These are the strata.) Then, a proportional number of individuals

would be selected from each group.

Block -3: Management Functions and Conflict Resolution

3. Define risk and describe different types of risks?

Answer

Risk: Risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on the

project‘s objectives. Risk is uncertain and is everywhere.

If a project risk materializes and has a negative impact on the project, it is called "Threat" to the project e.g.

• Unproven or new technology impacting project schedule

• Loosing critical resource from project

If an uncertain event has a positive impact on the project, it is called "Opportunities". e.g.

• Emergence of new tool to increase productivity

• New resource replacing the lost resource is a better one!

Or,

Our daily life language usually refers to risks as events that could have negative impact. A closer look into a

dictionary, e.g. Longman, 1998, reveals: A risk is the possibility that something harmful or undesirable may

happen. For our purposes, we adopt the definition also used in insurance business. A risk is the probability

that an event might occur which could have negative impact. Such an event we call risk event.

Risk = probability (event with negative impact may happen).

(In a similar way, we can define the term opportunity as probability that an event might occur which could

have positive impact. In fact, entrepreneurs of the gambling industry count on that.)

Risk management focuses on the question: What can we do about those events that might impact our project

in a negative way?

Risk Management: Risk Management includes processes concerned with conducting risk management

planning, identification, analysis, responses, and monitoring and control on a project. The objectives of

risk management are to increase the probability of positive events, and decrease the probability and

impact of adverse events to the project. The Project Manager is overall responsible for the risk

management activities in the project.

We can prevent some of these events by taking actions which make the event impossible to happen. For most

of them we can take actions that decrease their probability. Finally, for those we cannot prevent we can

prepare actions that make it easier for us to deal with their impact.


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Following the process, we start with step 1, identifying risks, i.e. identifying as many risk events as possible,

usually in a brainstorming session. The result is a list of such events. In step 2, evaluation of risks or risk

analysis, we estimate probability (in %) and impact (in $) of each event. By multiplying these figures we

obtain the expected value of risk, or just risk value. Risks with high risk value will be high on our priority list.

Another way of showing the different priorities of risks is by arranging them in the probability-impact-

diagram. Mathematically spoken, the risk value is the statistically expected value of impact or damage that

risk event could cause.

It is common practice to include those risks with either very high probability or very high impact into the top

priority risks, even if their risk values are low.

Step 3 focuses on identifying preventive or corrective actions, again in brainstorming sessions, and by

referring to lessons learned of earlier projects. In step 4, evaluation of actions and residual risks, we estimate

the cost of each action. For most events, we cannot reduce the probability of its occurrence down to 0 %.

After taking preventive action, we usually end up with a residual probability which, of course, is lower than

http://www.project-management-knowhow.com/risk_analysis.html�




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the original one. If we now multiply residual probability with impact we obtain the residual risk value.

Through adding the cost of action we get the expected value of action.

By comparing risk value with expected value of action we are able to decide if we want to take the action, i.e.

integrate it into the WBS or not.

The decision to prepare for corrective actions depends on the company’s or organization’s accounting

principles: it is good practice to include them into the project contingency.

As we proceed through planning phase, and later through implementation and closure phase, we repeat these

risk management workshops periodically since new risk event can come into our view which we should not

miss.

Classification of Risk: Risks are generally classified in two categories i.e. known and unknown.

• Known risks:

Working in a project with competitor (multi-vendor scenario) and doing a project in a new

geography (cultural differences) are some of the examples of known risks. Known risks are

predicted / identified based on the past experience of similar projects

• Unknown risks:

All the risks cannot be predicted and such risks are known as "unknown risks". e.g. natural disaster.

Unknown risks cannot be managed proactively. Most of the organizations address such risks through

"Business continuity" and "Disaster Recovery" plan. While Mitigation Plans and Workarounds can

be devised for known risks, Contingency Plans are the only solution to unknown risks, where

certain amount from the management reserve is categorized for such risks.

Risk Categories: Alternatively the risks in a project can also be grouped as under.

• External: Regulatory, environmental, government etc

• Internal: Time, cost, scope changes, resources, machinery etc

• Technical: Changes to technology

• Unforeseeable: Earthquakes, External attacks etc

Or we can further explain the detail classification below:

Broadly, there are five main categories of risk types associated with project management.

1. External Risks

External events are mainly outside the control of the project manager and, in most cases, the

corporation. Examples include:

• Marketplace developments—rapid developments can cause an abrupt change of direction

• Government regulatory changes

• Industry-specific procedures—new standards, issues


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• Mergers/acquisitions

• Legal issues—disputes, lawsuits, and court orders

• Change-driven factors—new products, services, changes in market

• Corporate strategy and priority changes

• Disasters such as fire, flood, earthquake, or other natural disaster

• Interference from outside electrical sources, causing disruption

• Loss of power, heating, or ventilation; air conditioning failure

• Sabotage, hacking, and security breaches

• Communications systems and security sensor failures

• Viruses and other malicious attacks on information systems

• Emergency destruction of communications

Most of these risks are very difficult to control at the project manager level but can be identified

and, therefore, managed. This means that senior management must be involved in the risk

management process and have input into risk control issues.

2. Cost Risks

Many of these types of risks are directly or indirectly under the project manager's control or

within his or her area of influence. Examples of cost risks include those arising from:

• Cost overruns by project teams or subcontractors, vendors, and consultants

• Scope creep, expansion, and change that has not been managed

• Poor estimating or errors that result in unforeseen costs

• Overrun of budget and schedule

3. Schedule Risks

Schedule risks can cause project failure by missing or delaying a market opportunity for a product

or service. Such risks are caused by:

• Inaccurate estimating, resulting in errors

• Increased effort to solve technical, operational, and external problems

• Resource shortfalls, including staffing delays, insufficient resources, and unrealistic

expectations of assigned resources

• Unplanned resource assignment—loss of staff to other, higher-priority projects

4. Technology Risks

Technology risks can result from a wide variety of circumstances. The result is failure to meet

systems' target functionality or performance expectations. Typical examples are:

• Problems with immature technology

• Use of the wrong tools


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• Software that is untested or fails to work properly

• Requirement changes with no change management

• Failure to understand or account for product complexity

• Integration problems

• Software/hardware performance issues—poor response times, bugs, errors

5. Operational Risks

Operational risks are characterized by an inability to implement large-scale change effectively.

Such risks can result in failure to realize the intended or expected benefits of the project. Typical

causes are:

• Inadequate resolution of priorities or conflicts

• Failure to designate authority to key people

• Insufficient communication or lack of communication plan

• Size of transaction volumes—too great or too small

• Rollout and implementation risks—too much, too soon

As indicated by these examples, project risks include both internal risks associated with successfully

completing each stage of the project, plus risks that are beyond the control of the project team. These latter

types include external risks that arise from outside the organization but affect the ultimate value to be derived

from the project. In all cases, the seriousness of the risk depends on the nature and magnitude of the possible

end consequences and their probabilities.

In addition to project risk, project deferral risk can be important. Project deferral risk refers to the risks

associated with failing to do a project. Like project risk, project deferral risk can arise from any of the

bulleted risk sources listed above (the second list). Project deferral risk can also occur if there is only a

limited window of opportunity for conducting a project—if the project is not conducted now, there may be a

risk that it might never be possible to effectively do it later.

Oftentimes, external risks contribute more to portfolio risk because they impact multiple projects

simultaneously. For example, a pharmaceutical company’s R&D project is affected by the uncertain

outcomes surrounding the specific compound involved, however many projects could be impacted by a

change in regulations. Similarly, a petroleum firm’s exploration project depends on uncertainty over whether

oil is present at the given location, but uncertainties over the market price of oil affect many projects.

Likewise, a construction company might have many projects threatened by the external risk of an increase in

steel or commodity prices.


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Block -3: Management Functions and Conflict Resolution

4. What are the characteristics of controlling function?

Answer:

Controlling: Controlling consists of verifying whether everything occurs in conformities with the plans

adopted, instructions issued and principles established. Controlling ensures that there is effective and

efficient utilization of organizational resources so as to achieve the planned goals. Controlling measures

the deviation of actual performance from the standard performance, discovers the causes of such

deviations and helps in taking corrective actions.

According to Brech, "Controlling is a systematic exercise which is called as a process of checking actual

performance against the standards or plans with a view to ensure adequate progress and also recording

such experience as is gained as a contribution to possible future needs".

Controlling has got two basic purposes:

• It facilitates co-ordination

• It helps in planning

Or,

The control function of management can be a critical determinant of organizational success. Most authors

discuss control only through feedback and adjustment processes. This article takes a broader perspective on

control and discusses the following questions: What is good control? Why are controls needed? How can

good control be achieved? If multiple control strategies are feasible, how should the choice among them be

made?

After strategies are set and plans are made, management’s primary task is to take steps to ensure that these

plans are carried out, or, if conditions warrant, that the plans are modified. This is the critical control function

of management. And since management involves directing the activities of others, a major part of the control

function is making sure other people do what should be done.

The management literature is filled with advice on how to achieve better control. This advice usually includes

a description of some type of measurement and feedback process:

• The basic control process, wherever it is found and whatever it is found and whatever it controls,

involves three steps: (1) establishing standards. (2) measuring performance against these

standards. and (3) correcting deviations from standards and plans.

• A good management control system stimulates action by spotting the significant variations from

the original plan and highlighting them for the people who can set things right.

• Controls need to focus on results.

This focus on measurement and feedback, however, can be seriously misleading. In many circumstances, a

control system built around measurement and feedback is not feasible. And even when feasibility is not a


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limitation, use of a feedback-oriented control system is often an inferior solution. Yet, good controls can be

established and maintained using other techniques.

What is needed is a broader perspective on control as a management function: this article addresses such a

perspective. The first part summarizes the general control problem by discussing the underlying reasons for

implementing controls and by describing what can realistically be achieved. In the second part, the various

types of controls available are identified. The last part discusses why the appropriate choice of controls is and

should be different in different settings.

Why Are Controls Needed? If all personnel always did what was best for the organization, control — and even management — would not

be needed. But, obviously individuals are sometimes unable or unwilling to act in the organization’s best

interest, and a set of controls must be implemented to guard against undesirable behavior and to encourage

desirable actions.

One important class of problems against which control systems guard may be called personal limitations.

People do not always understand what is expected of them nor how they can best perform their jobs, as they

may lack some requisite ability, training, or information. In addition, human beings have a number of innate

perceptual and cognitive biases, such as an inability to process new information optimally or to make

consistent decisions, and these biases can reduce organizational effectiveness. Some of these personal

limitations are correctable or avoidable, but for others, controls are required to guard against their deleterious

effects.

Even if employees are properly equipped to perform a job well, some choose not to do so, because individual

goals and organizational goals may not coincide perfectly. In other words, there is a lack of goal congruence.

Steps must often be taken either to increase goal congruence or to prevent employees from acting in their

own interest where goal incongruence exists.

If nothing is done to protect the organization against the possible occurrence of undesirable behavior or the

omission of desirable behavior caused by these personal limitations and motivational problems, severe

repercussions may result. At a minimum, inadequate control can result in lower performance or higher risk of

poor performance. At the extreme, if performance is not controlled on one or more critical performance

dimensions, the outcome could be organizational failure.

What Is Good Control? Perfect control, meaning complete assurance that actual accomplishment will proceed according to plan, is

never possible because of the likely occurrence of unforeseen events. However, good control should mean

that an informed person could be reasonably confident that no major unpleasant surprises will occur. A high

probability of forthcoming poor performance, despite a reasonable operating plan, sometimes is given the

label “out of control.”


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Some important characteristics of this desirable state of good control should be highlighted. First, control is

future-oriented: the goal is to have no unpleasant surprises in the future. The past is not relevant except as a

guide to the future, Second, control is multidimensional, and good control cannot be established over an

activity with multiple objectives unless performance on all significant dimensions has been considered. Thus,

for example, control of a production department cannot be considered good unless all the major performance

dimensions, including quality, efficiency, and asset management, are well controlled. Third, the assessment

of whether good performance assurance has been achieved is difficult and subjective. An informed expert

might judge that the control system in place is adequate because no major bad surprises are likely, but this

judgment is subject to error because adequacy must be measured against a future that can be very difficult to

assess. Fourth, better control is not always economically desirable. Like any other economic good, the control

tools are costly and should be implemented only if the expected benefits exceed the costs.

How Can Good Control Be Achieved? Good control can be achieved by avoiding some behavioral problems and/or by implementing one or more

types of control to protect against the remaining problems. The following sections discuss the major control

options.

Control-Problem Avoidance: In most situations, managers can avoid some control problems by allowing no opportunities for improper

behavior. One possibility is automation. Computers and other means of automation reduce the organization’s

exposure to control problems because they can be set to perform appropriately (that is, as the organization

desires), and they will perform more consistently than do human beings. Consequently, control is improved.

Another avoidance possibility is centralization, such as that which takes place with very critical decisions at

most organization levels. If a manager makes all the decisions in certain areas, those areas cease to be control

problems in a managerial sense because no other persons are involved.

A third avoidance possibility is risk-sharing with an outside body, such as an insurance company. Many

companies bond employees in sensitive positions, and in so doing, they reduce the probability that the

employees’ behavior will cause significant harm to the firm.

Finally, some control problems can and should be avoided by elimination of a business or an operation

entirely. Managers without the means to control certain activities, perhaps because they do not understand the

processes well, can eliminate the associated control problems by turning over their potential profits and the

associated risk to a third party, for example, by subcontracting or divesting.

If management cannot, or chooses not to avoid the control problems caused by relying on other individuals,

they must address the problems by implementing one or more control tactics. The large number of tactics that

are available to help achieve good control can be classified usefully into three main categories, according to

the object of control; that is, whether control is exercised over specific actions, results, or personnel.


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Control of Specific Actions: One type of control, specific-action control, attempts to ensure that individuals perform (or do not perform)

certain actions that are known to be desirable (or undesirable). Management can limit the incidence of some

types of obviously undesirable activity by using behavioral constraints that render the occurrence impossible,

or at least unlikely. These constraints include physical devices, such as locks and key-personnel identification

systems, and administrative constraints, such as segregation of duties, which make it very difficult for one

person to carry out an improper act.

A second type of specific action control is action accountability — a type of feedback control system by

which employees are held accountable for their actions. The implementation of action-accountability control

systems requires: (1) defining the limits of acceptable behavior, as is done in procedures manuals; (2)

tracking the behaviors that employees are actually engaged in; and (3) rewarding or punishing deviations

from the defined limits. Although action-accountability systems involve the tracking and reporting of actual

behaviors, their objective is to motivate employees to behave appropriately in the future. These systems are

effective only if employees understand what is required of them, and they feel that their individual actions

will be noticed and rewarded or punished in some significant way.

A third type of specific-action control is pre-action review. This involves observing the work of others before

the activity is complete, for example, through direct supervision, formal planning reviews, and approvals on

proposals for expenditures. Reviews can provide effective control in several ways by: correcting potentially

harmful behavior before the full damaging effects are felt; or influencing behavior just by the threat of an

impending review, such as causing extra care in the preparation of an expenditure proposal. One advantage of

reviews is that they can be used even when it is not possible to define exactly what is expected prior to the

review.

Characteristics of controlling function: Following are the characteristics of controlling function of

management;

• Controlling is an end function: A function, which comes once, the performances are made in

conformities with plans.

• Controlling is a pervasive function: Which means it is performed by managers at all levels and in

all type of concerns.

• Controlling is forward looking: because effective control is not possible without past being

controlled. Controlling always look to future so that follow-up can be made whenever required.

• Controlling is a dynamic process: since controlling requires taking reviewal methods,

changes have to be made wherever possible.

• Controlling is related with planning: Planning and Controlling are two inseparable functions

of management. Without planning, controlling is a meaningless exercise and without


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controlling, planning is useless. Planning presupposes controlling and controlling succeeds

planning.

Block-1: Project Planning

5. List the project performance dimensions and briefly describe their importance?

Answer:

Project Performance Dimension: Three major dimensions that define the project performance are scope,

time, and resource. These parameters are interrelated and interactive. The relationship generally represented

as an equilateral triangle. The relationship is shown below:

It is evident that any change in any one of dimensions would affect the other. For example, if the scope is

enlarged, project would require more time for completion and the cost would also go up. If time is reduced

the scope and cost would also be required to be reduced. Similarly any change in cost would be

reflected in scope and time. Successful completion of the project would require accomplishment of

specified goals within scheduled time and budget. In recent years a fourth dimension, stakeholder

satisfaction, is added to the project. However, the other school of management argues that this dimension

is an inherent part of the scope of the project that defines the specifications to which the project is

required to be implemented. Thus the performance of a project is measured by the degree to which these three

parameters (scope, time and cost) are achieved.

Mathematically expressing :

Performance = f(Scope, Cost, Time)

In management literature, this equilateral triangle is also referred as the "Quality triangle" of the project.

To have well understanding of the importance of the project performance dimensions, we explain it in detail

below:

Understand what defines a project:

Succeeding as a project manager requires that you complete your projects on time, finish within budget, and

make sure your customers are happy with what you deliver. That sounds simple enough, but how many


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projects have you heard of (or worked on) that were completed late, cost too much, or didn’t meet the needs

of their customers?

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (3rd edition, published by the Project Management

Institute, 2004) — referred to as the PMBOK and pronounced “pimbok” — defines a project as “a temporary

endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.” Let’s walk through this definition to clarify what

a project is and is not.

First, a project is temporary. A project’s duration might be just one week or it might go on for years, but

every project has an end date. You might not know that end date when the project begins, but it’s out there

somewhere in the future. Projects are not the same as ongoing operations, although the two have a great deal

in common. Ongoing operations, as the name suggests, go on indefinitely; you don’t establish an end date.

Examples include most activities of accounting and human resources departments. People who run ongoing

operations might also manage projects; for example, a manager of a human resources department for a large

organization might plan a college recruiting fair. Yet, projects are distinguished from ongoing operations by

an expected end date, such as the date of the recruiting fair.

Next, a project is an endeavor. Resources, such as people and equipment, need to do work. The endeavor is

undertaken by a team or an organization, and therefore projects have a sense of being intentional, planned

events. Successful projects do not happen spontaneously; some amount of preparation and planning happens

first.

Finally, every project creates a unique product or service. This is the deliverable for the project and the reason

that the project was undertaken. A refinery that produces gasoline does not produce a unique product. The

whole idea, in this case, is to produce a standardized commodity; you typically don’t want to buy gas from

one station that is significantly different from gas at another station. On the other hand, commercial airplanes

are unique products. Although all Boeing 777 airplanes might look the same to most of us, each is, in fact,

highly customized for the needs of its purchaser.

By now, you may realize that much of the work that goes on in the world is project work. If you schedule,

track, or manage any of this work, then congratulations are in order: you are already doing some project

management work!

Project management has been a recognized profession since about the 1950s, but project management work

in some form has been occurring for as long as people have been doing complex work. When the Great

Pyramids at Giza in Egypt were built, somebody somewhere was tracking resources, schedules, and

specifications in some fashion.

The project triangle: view projects in terms of time, cost, and scope:

You can visualize project work in many ways, but our favorite method is what is sometimes called the project

triangle or triangle of triple constraints.


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This theme has many variations, but the basic concept is that every project has some element of a time

constraint, has some type of budget, and requires some amount of work to complete. (In other words, it has a

defined scope.) The term constraint has a specific meaning in Project 2007, but here we’re using the more

general meaning of a limiting factor. Let’s consider these constraints one at a time.

Time:

Have you ever worked on a project that had a deadline? (Maybe we should ask whether you’ve ever worked

on a project that did not have a deadline.) Limited time is the one constraint of any project with which we are

all probably most familiar. If you’re working on a project right now, ask your team members to name the date

of the project deadline. They might not know the project budget or the scope of work in great detail, but

chances are they all know the project deadline.

The following are examples of time constraints:

• You are building a house and must finish the roof before the rainy season arrives.

• You are assembling a large display booth for a trade show that starts in two months.

• You are developing a new inventory-tracking system that must be tested and running by the start of

the next fiscal year.

Since we were children, we have been trained to understand time. We carry wristwatches, paper and

electronic organizers, and other tools to help us manage time. For many projects that create a product or

event, time is the most important constraint to manage.

Cost:

You might think of cost simply in monetary terms, but project cost has a broader meaning: costs include all

of the resources required to carry out the project. Costs include the people and equipment that do the work,

the materials they use, and all of the other events and issues that require money or someone’s attention in a

project.

The following are examples of cost constraints:

• You have signed a fixed-price contract to deliver an inventory-tracking software system to a client. If

your costs exceed the agreed-upon price, your customer might be sympathetic but probably won’t be

willing to renegotiate the contract.


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• The president of your organization has directed you to carry out a customer research project using

only the staff and equipment in your department.

• You have received a $5,000 grant to create a public art installation. You have no other funds.

For virtually all projects, cost is ultimately a limiting constraint; few projects could go over budget without

eventually requiring corrective action.

Scope:

You should consider two aspects of scope: product scope and project scope. Every successful project

produces a unique product: a tangible item or service. Customers usually have some expectations about the

features and functions of products they consider purchasing. Product scope describes the intended quality,

features, and functions of the product — often in minute detail. Documents that outline this information are

sometimes called product specifications. A service or event usually has some expected features as well. We

all have expectations about what we’ll do or see at a party, concert, or sporting event.

Project scope, on the other hand, describes the work required to deliver a product or service with the intended

product scope. Project scope is usually measured in tasks and phases.

The following are examples of scope constraints:

• Your organization won a contract to develop an automotive product that has exact requirements —

for example, physical dimensions measured to 0.01 mm. This is a product scope constraint that will

influence project scope plans.

• You are constructing a building on a lot that has a height restriction of 50 feet.

• You can use only internal services to develop part of your product, and those services follow a

product development methodology that is different from what you had planned.

Product scope and project scope are closely related. The project manager who manages project scope well

must also understand product scope or must know how to communicate with those who do.

Time, cost, and scope: manage project constraints:

Project management gets most interesting when you must balance the time, cost, and scope constraints of

your projects. The project triangle illustrates the process of balancing constraints because the three sides of

the triangle are connected, and changing one side of a triangle affects at least one other side.

The following are examples of constraint balance:

• If the duration (time) of your project schedule decreases, you might need to increase budget (cost)

because you must hire more resources to do the same work in less time. If you cannot increase the

budget, you might need to reduce the scope because the resources you have cannot complete all of

the planned work in less time.


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If you must decrease a project’s duration, make sure that overall project quality is not unintentionally

lowered. For example, testing and quality control often occur last in a software development project; if

project duration is decreased late in the project, those tasks might be the ones to suffer with cutbacks. You

must weigh the benefits of decreasing the project duration against the potential downside of a deliverable

with poorer quality.

• If the budget (cost) of your project decreases, you might need more time because you cannot pay for

as many resources or for resources of the same efficiency. If you cannot increase the time, you might

need to reduce project scope because fewer resources cannot complete all of the planned work in the

time remaining.

If you must decrease a project’s budget, you could look at the grades of material resources for which you had

budgeted. For example, did you plan to shoot a film in 35 mm when cheaper digital video would do? A

lower-grade material is not necessarily a lower-quality material. As long as the grade of material is

appropriate for its intended use, it might still be of high quality. As another example, fast food and gourmet

are two grades of restaurant food, but you may find high-quality and low-quality examples of each.

You should also look at the costs of the human and equipment resources you have planned to use. Can you

hire less experienced people for less money to carry out simpler tasks? Reducing project costs can lead to a

poorer-quality deliverable, however. As a project manager, you must consider (or, more likely, communicate

to the decision makers) the benefits versus the risks of reducing costs.


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• If your project scope increases, you might need more time or resources (cost) to complete the

additional work. When project scope increases after the project has started, it’s called scope creep.

Changing project scope midway through a project is not necessarily a bad thing; for example, the

environment in which your project deliverable will operate may have changed or become clearer

since beginning the project. Changing project scope is a bad thing only if the project manager doesn’t

recognize and plan for the new requirements — that is, when other constraints (cost, time) are not

correspondingly examined and, if necessary, adjusted.

Time, cost, and scope are the three essential elements of any project. To succeed as a project manager, you

should know quite a bit about how all three of these constraints apply to your projects.

Here is our final word about the project triangle model. Like all simple models of complex subjects, this

model is a useful learning tool but not always a reflection of the real world. If real projects always performed

as the project triangle suggests they should, you might see projects delivered late but at planned cost or with

expected scope. Or, projects might be completed on time and with expected scope but at higher cost. In other

words, you’d expect to see at least one element of the project triangle come in as planned. But the sad truth is

that many projects, even with rigorous project management oversight, are delivered late, over budget, and

with far less than expected scope of functionality. You’ve probably participated in a few such projects

yourself. As you well know, project management is just plain difficult. Success in project management

requires a rare mix of skills and knowledge about schedule practices and tools, as well as skill in the domain

or industry in which a project is executed.

Project Planning and Management

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