Essay
Project Planning - Unit 17 Assignment 1
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- PEARSON (PEARSON)
Understanding project management.
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Unit 17 - Project planning with ITAssignment 1
Throughout the entirety of this assignment I will be building an understanding of how
projects are managed.
Task 1 – Project life cycle
Define and produce specification
Before commencing on the project you will need to meet with your customer (or
stakeholders). You will need to define exactly what they would like accomplished by the end
of the project and set the vision. Once the vision has been created and approved of by both
the customer and project planner they can put the plan into action. The specification should
already be created by the customer as it will specify the certain requirements in which need
to be meet in order to be a successful project. If it hasn’t been created, then the customer
and project planner should both go through what specification will be suitable for their
business (for example graphic designers should not be working on low-spec computer,
instead they should have 4k monitors and excellent graphic cards).
Plan and design
The customer should have a idea of how they would like the project to commence.
Customer requirements should be disclosed at this point, the customer requirements may
include the budget, how fast they wish to get the project finished by and the blue prints
should be made.
Collection of information
In accordance to the specification given to the project manager, the project manager should
revise the product expenses, how long things will take to finish (for example how long it may
take for a new wall to be able created or how long a new software update should take), the
people they will need to employ and the possible risks entailed with the process of
commencing with the project. The reports gathered should then be presented to the
customer (or stakeholders).
Implementing the plan
Now the specification, design, plan and information has all been collected and the customer
and project manager are in agreement they should be able to go-ahead with the plans and
begin the project. Documentation of the project should be taken and reports should be
forwarded onto the customer (stakeholder) so they know of the current progress. The
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Matthew Lloyd-Jones
, Unit 17 - Project planning with IT
Assignment 1
project may consist of the following processes: Building the product or service, testing the
product or service and ensuring it meet the criteria, providing documentation and possibly
training the employees (a typical example would be training employees to use a new
computer software). And the final step, handing the product to the customer.
Complete project and review
Once all of the above has been completed the project is coming to a close. The final step is
for the customer to be using the product problem free. The documentation should be
gathered and analysed. This should identify the benefits and the costs of building and
running the product. The documentation should provide an insight of how well the project
was managed and I any improvements could’ve been made.
Usually involves the customer and the users using the product. It identifies the benefits and
costs of building and running the product. It reveals how well you did and how well it was
managed.
Task 2 – Why do projects fail
Throughout this section of the assignment I will import two case studies which I have
created that relate to information technology. More specifically the case studies will consist
of – ‘the Canadian gun registry’ and the ‘Denver Luggage system’.
The Canadian Gun Registry
Introduction
The Canadian Gun Registry was originally a project in which was declared to cost a net of
around two million dollars (£1,646,226.04) and ended up closer to one billion
(£823,058,820.00). That is around a 50,000 per cent overrun. As project manager could you
imagine the fury you would have to receive from the stakeholders! Throughout this case
study I will be gathering information on how this project went so south as to be nicknamed:
A Billion Dollar Boondoggle.
History and background information
It seems the project began when a psychologically impaired man under the name of Marc
Lepine using a Mini-14 auto-loading rile at L’Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal on December
6th of 1989, tragically shot down fourteen young women. The resulting outcry focused
primarily on violence against woman however there was also concern over the lawlessness
over guns, this urged the Federal Government to take legislative action.
The goal of the project was to decree that all person(s) with firearms must abide by the gun
control legislation and register their arms. Once registered the government would be able to
track any firearm, especially if used in an unlawful activity, collect and store related data in a
large national database.
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Matthew Lloyd-Jones
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