1. John Potter Plymouth Business School University of Plymouth Project Management

2. Projects are efforts to achieve objectives Projects have a start, a middle and an end Thus projects are different from operational activities which are performed regularly over time e.g. payroll However, there can be some overlap between project management and operational management There are core skills involved in project management including identifying and agreeing on project objectives, scheduling and estimating In addition other issues such as managing risk, communication and dealing with other people are key areas of importance The nature of project working

3.  A project can be defined as …….. “……..and endeavour in which human (or machine), material and financial resources are organised in a novel way, to undertake a unique scope of work, or given specification, within constraints of cost and time, so as to deliver beneficial change by quantitative and qualitative objectives” ◦ Turner – The handbook of project-based management: Improving the Process for Achieving Strategic Objectives ◦ Five functions of project based management: ◦ Organisation, scope, time, quality and cost. Turner (1998) The handbook of project-based management: Improving the Process for Achieving Strategic Objectives.

4. In this module we are going to consider a number of specific aspects of project management The shift away from a focus just on planning towards an increased awareness of the human issues We will be considering project leadership as well as project management, creating the project team and promoting organisational team working The processes of monitoring and evaluating the success of the project will be considered and the process of handing over the completed project. Overview of this module

5. The modern approach to project management may be traced back to the middle of the 20 th Century when the US Navy’s special Projects Office was formed in 1957 to support the nuclear submarine project. The PERT method (program evaluation and review technique) was established to analyse the tasks involved in completing a complex project A key feature of PERT is the identification of the critical path, that minimum amount of time that the project will consume given the various activities involved and how they relate to each other. The roots of project management

6. 12 3 4 5 3 months 1 month3 months 2 months 4 months 3 months There are five milestones 1 to 5 and six activities A to F which are estimated to take 1,2,3 or 4 months as shown. The minimum time for project completion is the CRITICAL PATH of 7 months shown as a thick lines. A BC E DF

7.  There are many types of project which we will identify later in this session  Whatever the nature of the project there are three core issues which need to be addressed: ◦ Quality ◦ Cost ◦ Time  In addition, projects invariably take place in a context which includes organizational politics, individuals’ personal objectives and external, commercial or stakeholder pressures.

8. Cost Quality Time Organisational politics Personal Objectives Business Pressures External and stakeholder issues

9. Originally project management techniques tended to be applied to large construction or defence projects. However many types of project exist Many new style projects exist which vary in size, length and complexity. They can include installing ICT systems, office moves, testing a new product, acquiring or merging with another organisation, an internal change programme and a host of other areas of work Whether in manufacturing, financial services, retail, the health service or local government there is usually one person, the project leader who is in charge During this module on project management we will be looking at the issue of effective project leadership. Types of projects

10. In their book ‘Project Leadership’ Briner, Geddes and Hastings propose a new definition of project management: “new style project management is managing the visible and invisible team to achieve the objectives of the stakeholders”  The six concepts that underlie this idea are:  The visible team – those people working directly on the project, full time or part time  The invisible team – those people who contribute indirectly to the work of the visible team either inside or outside the organisation  The Multiple stakeholders – All those people having an interest in the project  In addition there are issues of organisational teamworking, organisational context and the people factor to consider A new definition of project management

11. Problems in project working are caused as much by people issues as by technical or resource issues Effective team work promoted by effective project leadership One of the sources of problems in project working is that technical people often have little experience or appetite for handling the people issues The accelerating rate of change Most organisations are struggling to cope with increasing regulation and risk of litigation, disaffected employees with low morale and complexity in general terms. Understanding and handling the people factor

12. Levels of leadership  Project leadership is strategic and operational in nature as well as based on effective leadership  The three levels of strategic operational and front line leadership are as important in project leadership as in other circumstances  Strategic leadership is about creating the grand plan, focusing on the big picture and understanding the strategic fit of the project  Operational leadership is about putting the grand plan into practice and developing the day to day activity on the project  Team leadership is about outcomes required, time issues and specific boundaries  These three levels of leadership all take place within the culture of the organisation and its project organisation and both the project teams and the organisation as a whole needs to stay in touch with its environment, the business context in order to stay current in its thinking  We can see how these three levels of leadership, the culture and the context or environment relate in the next slide

13. Strategic OperationalFront Line Culture Environment.

14. Strategy is about the ‘big picture’ It is important to create a vision to describe the situation which will exist when the project is completed Strategy is about looking outside the ‘box’ of your own project to consider how success or otherwise in the project will affect the organisation We all face uncertainty in terms of the future. A key element in strategic thinking in the modern world is the idea of scenario analysis. Becoming more strategic as a project manager

15. Each project has detailed success criteria These are sets of specifications which the project has to meet Success factors vary They may be clearly defined or open such as defining a desirable output Hard criteria include meeting deadlines, performance specifications, quality standards, cost and resource issues Soft criteria may include a positive image, co- operative attitudes, commitment and ethical issues. Project evaluation – hard and soft measures

16. We will conclude this session by considering some stakeholder issues Build a knowledge base about your stakeholders What is their background, history, status and predominant beliefs about the project? What sort of people are they? Do they have any negative assumptions about the project? How can you develop effective relationships with your most significant stakeholders? Managing stakeholder relationships

17. Briner, W, Geddes, M, Hastings,C (1990) Project Leadership. Gower: Aldershot, England. Turner.J.R. (1998) The handbook of project-based management: Improving the Process for Achieving Strategic Objectives. McGraw-Hill: London Lee-Kelley.L. & Leong, K.(2003) “Turner’s five-functions of project-based management and situation leadership in IT services projects”. International Journal of Project Management (21:8) 583-591 Ringland, G. (2006) Scenario Planning.John Wiley & Sons: West Sussex, UK. References

18. This resource was created by the University of Plymouth, Learning from WOeRk project. This project is funded by HEFCE as part of the HEA/JISC OER release programme.Learning from WOeRk This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/).http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ The resource, where specified below, contains other 3 rd party materials under their own licenses. The licenses and attributions are outlined below: 1.The name of the University of Plymouth and its logos are unregistered trade marks of the University. The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources. 2.The JISC logo, the and the logo of the Higher Education Academy are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England & Wales license. All reproductions must comply with the terms of that license. Back page originally developed by the OER phase 1 C-Change project ©University of Plymouth, 2010, some rights reserved Author John Potter InstituteUniversity of Plymouth TitleWhat is a Project Date Created 10/06/2011 Educational Level Level 5 Keywords Learning from WOeRK Work Based Learning WBL Continuous Professional Development CPD leadership and management UKOER LFWOER