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Summary IT A-Level, Covers all of topic 13 New and emerging technologies
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IT A-Level, Covers all of topic 13 New and emerging technologies, Mostly for Cambridge students
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15 Project Management Project management is about applying a process to enable the completion of a project
on time and within budget
It can be broken down into initiation, planning, execution and monitoring and close
stages.
Project management software can be used to assist a project team throughout a project
and tools such as Gantt charts, PERT and CPM can be used to aid project planning.
Failure to complete projects on time and within budget can be embarrassing for
organizations who have made promises on delivery and frustrating for the end user
15.1 The stages of the project life cycle
Project Initiation
During the project conception and initiation stage, the initial ideas for a project are
identified and goals are set.
Key stakeholders are identified and decisions are made about whether or not it’s
appropriate to undertake a project by creating a feasibility study, which will
determine whether the project is of benefit to an organizations based on resources,
time and finance
Requirement for project are identified so all stakeholders are aware of the
expectations of the project
Objectives of the project its scope, risks, approximate budget and approximate
timescales will be defined and agreed with all stakeholders
, An estimate of required resources will be made and a high level schedule will be
created that identifies proposed dates for completion and aspects of the project
A project brief or project initiation document (PID) or initial statement of work
(SoW) is created.
At the end a phase review will take place to check if all aspects have been completed
and all stakeholders understand and agree the project brief
Project Planning
A comprehensive budget will be formulated along with details of timescales for the
progress of the project
Milestones will be set, that show by which time certain aspects of the project must be
completed
Tasks will be identified and prioritized that have to be completed between each
milestone
A Gantt chart will be produced to show which tasks need to be completed and in which
order
Resources including personnel will be allocated to tasks in coordinated manner so they
are available at right times, this is to prevent them from being not used or overused
At the end, a phase review will be carried out to check if the plan is achievable and it
meets the objectives of the project
Project Execution
It is critical that the plan is followed so that resources are used at the appropriate
times.
Any delays to a task can have a knock-on effect to successor tasks.
The project manager will be expected to communicate roles and responsibilities to team
members and set interim targets for each member to achieve within the timescales of
the overall plan.
At the end of the project execution phase, an execution phase review will take place to
learn lessons from what went wrong and to note examples of good practice. The review
will cover questions such as:
- Was the project schedule maintained?
- Was the project within budget?
- Were all resources available when required?
- Has the project met the original requirements?
, Project Monitoring and Control
Throughout the execution of the project, the project manager must monitor the progress
and control what is happening as they will be responsible for ensuring tasks are
completed on time and for rescheduling any tasks incase of delays
Project manager will need to monitor the performance of team members to ensure they
are carrying out their agreed roles effectively
They will need to monitor expenditure and compare it against the budget to ensure no
overspend occurs and keep a close eye on the scope of the project to ensure it doesn’t
extend beyond the agreed boundaries.
Objects will be regularly reviewed to ensure the project is meeting its original objectives
There should be regular project review meetings where key stakeholders can discuss
the progress of the project
At times, the project plan will need to be adjusted, so there is regular iteration between
the execution, monitoring and control, and planning phases as shown
Project Close
At times, the project plan will need to be adjusted, so there is regular iteration between
the execution, monitoring and control, and planning phases as shown
Contracts will be terminated, which means some people may need to be deployed
elsewhere or may need to look for alternative employment
Resources that have been assigned to the project will be released
A review of the project will take place between the client and the project management
team, where requirements will be evaluated and successes will be celebrated
The client will be expected to sign off the project as completed, so that it is clear there is
no further work to carry out and closure will have been achieved.
15.2 Project management software
Planning
Most of the planning involved using project management software is concerned with
scheduling tasks and allocating resources to those tasks.
However key milestones can be identified in advance, these are when crucial points in
the project should be reached, so tasks should be scheduled to meet these milestones
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