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Summary MNO3701 - Project Planning & Control
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
Project Planning & Control
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MNO 3701 Production & OperationsManagement
Chapter 11
Project Planning & Control (Not including Network Planning)
What is a project?
A project is a set of activities with a defined start point and a defined end state, which pursues a defined
goal and uses a defined set of resources.
Projects come in many and various forms, including the following:
• organising emergency aid to earthquake victims;
• producing a television programme;
• constructing the Channel Tunnel;
• designing an aircraft;
The care with which one prioritises capital expenditure is crucial. The most important point is that projects
are an investment and there should always be a strong case made for the value added by the execution
of any project.
No matter how difficult, some form of diligent evaluation of project benefits should always be undertaken
and the time frames of this evaluation are often longer than for other forms of decision making decisions
can only be enhanced by the quality of the arguments that lead up to those decisions.
Good decisions lead to the creation of value and bad decisions lead to the destruction of value. Many
projects fail not because of the way they were planned and controlled, but because the decision was a
bad one in the first place.
What do projects have in common?
All the projects listed above have some elements in common. They all have an objective, a definable end
result or output that is typically defined in terms of cost, quality and timing.
They are all unique.
A project is usually a 'one-off', not a repetitive undertaking.
They are all of a temporary nature.
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, Projects have a defined beginning and end, so a temporary concentration of resources is needed to carry
out the undertaking. Once their contribution to the project objectives has been completed, the resources
are usually redeployed.
They will all have some degree of complexity.
Many different tasks are required to be undertaken to achieve a project's objectives.
The relationship between all these tasks can be complex, especially when the number of separate tasks
in the project is large. Finally, all projects have to cope with some uncertainty.
All projects are planned before they are executed and therefore carry an element of risk.
It is worth pointing out the distinction between 'projects' and 'programmes'. A programme, such as a
continuous improvement programme, has no defined end point; rather it is an ongoing process of change
Programme management will overlay and integrate the individual projects.
A typology of projects
A typology for projects according to their complexity - in terms of size, value and the number of people
involved in the project - and their uncertainty of achieving the project objectives of cost, time and quality.
Typology helps to give a rational presentation of the vast range of undertakings where project
management principles can be applied. Also gives a clue to the nature of the projects and the difficulties
of managing them. Uncertainty particularly affects project planning and complexity particularly affects
project control.
Projects with high uncertainty are likely to be especially difficult to define and set realistic objectives for.
If the exact details of a project are subject to change during the course of its execution, the planning
process is particularly difficult.
When uncertainty is high, the whole project planning process needs to be sufficiently flexible to cope with
the consequences of change.
A typology of projects
Projects with high levels of complexity need not necessarily be difficult to plan, although they might involve
considerable effort; controlling them can be problematic, however.
As projects become more detailed with many separate activities, resources and groups of people involved,
the scope for things to go wrong increases.
As the number of separate activities in a project grows, the ways in which they can impact on each other
increases exponentially. This increases the effort involved in monitoring each activity.
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