Notes for Introduction to Project Management Assessment 1

1. Introduction to Project
Management Assessment Notes

2. What is a ‘Project’
• Projects can be identified and defined by the following features:
• They are an instrument for change
• They have a specific and unique goal or outcome
• They are usually one-off activities and not routine
• They will have a defined starting date point and specific and required finishing
date point
• They will have a defined and clear budget to work within
• Composed of interdependent activities
• Carried out by people who do not normally work together
• Uncertain and involve a degree of risk

3. ‘Project’ Examples
• Examples of unique projects include:
• A new shopping centre
• A bridge
• A new motorway extension
• Designing the next generation of computers
• Planning the next national election
• Building a shed
After a project is completed, the entire project team will become redundant
until they are re-hired when they sign contracts for new unique contracts

4. Project Task
• A project task is defined as ‘an achievable section of a project’

5. Stakeholder
• Project stakeholders include the sponsors of the project (e.g. people who
are paying for it). They are also those involved/impacted by the project,
and to some extent all members of the project team are stakeholders as
they can influence the project in varying levels including:
• Strategic – They determine the strategy that the project will use
• Managerial – They undertake management control over the project and the
resources used
• Project – They are involved in the development and delivery of the project
• Operational – They are involved in the implementation and operational outputs of
the project
• Direct influence – They are directly affected by the project and its outputs
• Indirect Influence – They are indirectly affected by the project and its outputs

6. Key Stakeholders and Stakeholder Maps
• Key Stakeholder – Those who the project will impact upon the most
• Stakeholder Map – Used to identify each stakeholder’s interest in the
project outcome. Below is an example for organising a conference:
Stakeholder Finance Safety Publicity Programme Hospitality Venue
Exhibitor x x x
Delegate x x x x
Press x
Media x
Supplier x x x
Sponsor x x x x
Presenter x x x

7. Project Triangle
• The project triangle concept relates to factors that affect a project
outcome. These factors include:
• Quality
• Cost
• Scope
• Schedule

8. Project Triangle Explained
• The quality of the completed project is affected in different ways. If
the cost set aside for a project is not enough then the project quality
will suffer. If the cost is enough then the quality will be as expected.
• The scope of the project can be underestimated and therefore affect
the quality of the completed project. If the scope is overestimated,
then the quality will then still be affected.
• The schedule of work (timescale) can be overestimated and
underestimated meaning the quality can be enhanced and also
underachieved respectively.

9. Resources
• A resource in projects can be physical elements such as building
materials, people required to work on the project and equipment
such as tools and documents.

10. Brainstorming
• Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which efforts are
made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of
ideas spontaneously contributed by its members.

11. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a key project deliverable that
organizes the team's work into manageable sections. This makes
project members clearly understand each section of the project and
its details

12. Schedule
• Each deliverable group and individual task which has milestones are
part of the complete project schedule.
• You can take a project and by making judgements identify how long
the project will take by using the work done previously

13. Gantt Chart
• A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule.
Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal
elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and
summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the
project.

14. Pert Chart
• Pert charts are a system required in order to complete a project on
time. Each node represents an event in the project, with arrows
drawn between each based on the sequence of events.
• Pert stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique

15. Pert Chart Example

16. Pert Chart – Critical Path
• The critical path is the maximum length of time needed to complete
every single task within the project.
• All other tasks must fit within this time period

17. Scope
• Project Scope is the work that’s needs to be accomplished to deliver a
product, service or result with the specified features and functions.
The scope of a project is the clear identification of the work that is
required to successfully complete or deliver a project.
• One of the project manager’s responsibilities is to ensure that only
the required work (scope) will be performed and that this will happen
within the allotted time and budget.
• Dangers of Scope
• If the scope of a project is not well defined and limited, the scope of the
project can far exceed the original idea. A project needs to be placed within a
boundary to ensure the project does not increase in the size or decrease.

18. Feature Creep
• If a project scope is altered during the implementation of the project
after the scope has been defined, then it can ‘creep’.
• This is when additional features or functions of a new product is
added after the determination.

19. Task Concurrency
• In relation to tasks in a project, a concurrent task means that multiple
tasks will start at the same time as each other