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Project Management Methodologies

University: University of Roehampton London

  • Unit No: 13
  • Level: High school
  • Pages: 21 / Words 5205
  • Paper Type: Assignment
  • Course Code: QAB020N503S
  • Downloads: 519
Question :

This sample will let you know about:

  • Define Agile Methodology.
  • Discuss Critical Path Method.
Answer :
Organization Selected : N/A
 

The project initiation document i.e. PID or the project charter is a document that encompasses the different activities that need to be accomplished in order to achieve the intended objectives behind the project (Lensges, Kloppenborg and Forte, 2018). There are certain key elements of PID statement and each can be individually developed for the QAHE Student Application Development:

Budget: Preparation of a budget involves ascertaining the costs that might be incurred in the completion of the activities that are to be undertaken. It ensures that there is no over or under spending that the estimated costs (Mousaei and Javdani, 2018). In order to develop the current budget for the project of developing a QAHE Recreation App, following budget can be developed: 

Particulars

Amount (Total)

App developer

£10000

Wages

£1000

Marketing and Promotion

£2000

Equipment and staff

£5000

Maintenance

£1500

Stationary

£500

Total

£200000

The budget above helps in estimating an approximate cost of £200k in the development of a student application for the QAHE University.

Timescale: The sponsors want he application to be developed by the next academic year and therefore the time that can be utilized is the time period of five months from February to June 2020.

Objectives: The current project is developed with the aim of developing a student application for the QAHE University ( Eskerod and Jepsen, 2016). This is done to increase the awareness and the objectives can be categorized as follows:

  • The management of QAHE wants to develop a common and integrated platform where students can indulge in activities apart from their classes and education.
  • The involvement of the students in the external activities and other events, clubs and societies outside or inside of the campus.
  • The increase in the number of student recognition awards in the extra- curricular activities and further increased representation of the QAHE University.
  • To complete the entire project within the time frame of five months before launching the student interaction application next year.
  • To portray an enhanced image of all round development so that further students can be attracted to the university and enrolments can be increased.

Approach: In order to develop a perfect and integrated platform for the students, it is necessary to adopt and implement and error free approach so that objectives can be integrated with the approach:

  • Development of a proper schedule where students can work on the project without compromising with studies because students will play a major role in ascertaining the contents or the aspects covered in the development of student application.
  • The core team for the current project will involve 5 teachers, all the Hod's of the University, the Dean, student team of 30 students. The dean and the Hod's will be informed regularly about the progress and their approval at each stage will be taken for the project.
  • Two external specialists in the app developing field. The specialists will ensure error free development of the mobile application by using the technical knowledge that they posses in relation to the app development.
  • The volunteers if any will be selected only if they are found to adequately skilled and collectively, education of the students will not be compromised with.

Key Staff: The key staff will be the core team of students, teacher, HOD and Dean involved in the development of QAHE student Application. The specialists hired and the sponsor of the event i.e. the director of O2 will also form a part of the key staff for the project. The sponsors will be regularly informed of the project's progress. Get Assignment Examples.Talk to our Experts!

Stakeholder Analysis: This stage involves the identification of the interested parties in the project and the impact of their decision in the project (Kerzner, 2018).

Stakeholders

Power, Interest and Significance

Students

Students have the power to make application either successful or a failure and it is necessary to develop application in accordance with the interests of students because of the key role that they play. The increased participation in external activities as well will help in enhancing the overall development of the student at QAHE. They can influence the success of the project by either accepting the student application platform or not.

Sponsors

Sponsors will provide funding on which entire project depends, and they are interested in every activity. Also, the project will be viable only after their approval. The investor of the project is the crucial party where they must be informed of the progress regularly to keep them engaged. The directors' approval must be taken at every stage so that funds can be acclaimed regularly.

Project Manager

Project Leader has the power to control all the activities of the project and its success influences the success of the manager. The project manager is the leader and therefore the success and activities being undertaken for the project must be evaluated all the times. They must have complete knowledge of each activity being undertaken and take into account its positive and negative aspect accordingly.

Team Members

Activities undertaken by core team must be in accordance with the objectives because these can influence the completion and success of entire project. The core team must be aware of the responsibilities clearly where each must acknowledge their tasks and skills required properly. The application can be built successfully only after if they understand what work is to be done on it.

The stakeholder matrix helps in determining the power and interest aspect of different stakeholders associated with project. The stakeholders for the current project of QAHE can be categorized as follows:

Work Breakdown Structure

A work breakdown structure details different activity that are to be performed in the project being undertaken in a chronological order (Sanghera, 2019). A work breakdown structure  for this project of building a student application can be detailed as follows where all the activities will be completed in the time frame of five months: 

S. Nos.

Task Name

Duration

Start

Finish

Predecessors

1

App Initiation

40 days

Thu 2/13/20

Wed 4/8/20

 

2

   Develop a team

15 days

Thu 2/13/20

Wed 3/4/20

 

3

   Assign roles and responsibilities

10 days

Thu 2/13/20

Wed 2/26/20

 

4

   Conduct a feasibility study

25 days

Thu 3/5/20

Wed 4/8/20

2

5

   Stakeholder/ sponsors identification

10 days

Thu 2/27/20

Wed 3/11/20

3

6

App Development Planning

65 days

Thu 2/13/20

Wed 5/13/20

 

7

   Budget formulation

5 days

Thu 4/9/20

Wed 4/15/20

4

8

   Developing Timeline

5 days

Thu 4/9/20

Wed 4/15/20

4

9

   Select external specialist

15 days

Thu 2/13/20

Wed 3/4/20

 

10

   Designing Publicity or promotion mechanisms

20 days

Thu 4/16/20

Wed 5/13/20

7

11

App Development Implementation

85 days

Thu 2/13/20

Wed 6/10/20

 

12

   Developing a structure

10 days

Thu 5/14/20

Wed 5/27/20

6,9

13

   Additional features

5 days

Thu 5/14/20

Wed 5/20/20

6

14

   Marketing the Application

20 days

Thu 5/14/20

Wed 6/10/20

6,9

15

   Branding Student Application

5 days

Thu 2/13/20

Wed 2/19/20

14

16

App Monitoring

50 days

Thu 4/16/20

Wed 6/24/20

 

17

   Conducting a test

5 days

Thu 4/16/20

Wed 4/22/20

7

18

   Identifying bugs

10 days

Thu 6/11/20

Wed 6/24/20

14

19

   Risk management

10 days

Thu 4/16/20

Wed 4/29/20

8

20

   Selecting App monitoring Committee

5 days

Thu 5/21/20

Wed 5/27/20

13

21

Closure

13 days

Thu 6/11/20

Mon 6/29/20

 

22

   Identifying compatibility

2 days

Thu 6/11/20

Fri 6/12/20

6,14,17

23

   Reviewing the application performance

2 days

Thu 6/25/20

Fri 6/26/20

16,18

24

   Suggesting improvements

1 day

Mon 6/15/20

Mon 6/15/20

22

25

   Success of the application

1 day

Mon 6/29/20

Mon 6/29/20

22,23

Critical Path Method

This is important for the project in ascertaining the most productive chronology of completing the activities associated with it. It will ensure maximum productivity by adopting a sequence of rewarding strategies for the application development of QAHE university thus contributing in overall success by reducing time and resource wastage. Order assignment help from our experts!

Risk register

Risk register contains estimation of all the possible risks that can be incurred and their estimation regarding occurrence i.e. probability is defined (Ng, 2018). The action plans that need to be adopted in order to manage the risks better are also illustrated. Following is the risk register for app development and the risks that have been ascertained are:

RISK REGISTER FOR DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT APP AT QAHE

S. No.

Risks

Probability

Mitigation Strategy

Contingency Action

Owner

Pre action plan

Pre action score

Post action plan

Post action score

1

External factors risk such as change in consumer preference for mobile applications being replaced by something more advanced

1

Accept

Prepare adequate backup strategies so that a new  strategy can be adopted and integrated as quickly as possible.

Core team/ Manager

Regular environmental scanning will help in identifying the changing market trends so that app can be developed exhaustively.

5

Control the impact on failure

3

2

Budget failure

5

Mitigate

A separate fund needs to be developed for accounting for unexpected expenditures

Finance team/ Manager

Change in Prices of required material should be identified and matched with budgeted costs

2

Restructure budget and get allocation for extra funds.

3

3

Communication problem

4

Reduce/ Control

Project manager needs to segregate duties and powers clearly to avoid clashing of ideas and encourage work in an integrated manner.

Project Manager

Clear development of work related goals and duties

3

Enhanced communication between members

5

4

Limited resources

5

Transfer

If the resources prove to be insufficient readjust the current allocated resources.

Project manager/ Core team

Correct estimation of resource requirement and allocate resources accordingly.

1

Developing contingency plan and keeping spare resources

4

5

Withdrawal of sponsors

2

Mitigate

Revaluate existing communication strategies and begin the process of identification of external sources of project funding.

Project Leader/ Marketing team

The progress and activities undertaken should be reported regularly

5

Try to pacify sponsors or find new ones.

4

6

Ill defined scope

1

Avoid

The scope must be rebuilt where the research needs to be done at an enhanced level and try to match the scope with the project activities.

Core team/ Project Manager

Scope needs to be checked regularly

3

Redevelop scope in a more exhaustive manner

4

7

Commercial risks such as application failure

2

Accept

The manager should develop strategies to be adopted if such risk arise i.e. another artificial intelligence platform to be adopted if this fails.

Project Manager

Feasibility of project

3

Develop strong backup plan

4

8

Legal risks

3

Avoid

Thorough study of the legal rules and adopting a better legal monitoring team.

Legal Team/ Manager

Study of applicable laws

1

Try third party settlement or hire lawyer

5

9

Leadership risks

3

Avoid or Control

New Leader must be chosen after careful deliberation and evaluation of all associated aspects.

Leader/ Core team

Choose competent individual

4

Developing existing leader or selecting new

2

10

Change resistance

3

Mitigate

Lack of acceptance of the new application developed can be mitigated by making it more flexible or user- friendly.

Team Members/ Hod/ Dean/ Sponsor

Increase the understanding of the students regarding its importance.

4

Increase users of application

2

Cruciality of risk register in success of project

Risk register is an important part in taking into account the different risks that are associated with the project. The risk register helps in identifying the probability of occurrence of the risk if it incurs and also details the actions that are to be taken if such risk arises in the completion of the project (Lyra and et.al., 2018). The most important aspect of the risk register is that it takes into consideration even those risks that are least likely to occur and those that are most likely to occur as well.

For instance, in the above risk register as well, it identified the probability of the risks associated with changes in the external factors that might lead to the act of developing a student application as a redundant task and the action plans that were required to be adopted in such scenarios. This helps the managers in ascertaining that what are the chances that a particular risk might occur and the mitigation strategies helps in avoiding the losses as quickly as possible. Further, the highly plausible risks such as over incurring the estimated budget costs etc. were also included and how the project manager can avoid this over expense right from the beginning was illustrated. This justifies the contribution of risk register in risk management plan where the manager is able to identify the different risks that might incur in the project.

When the development of risk register is not appropriate in a project, it leads to a failure in ranking the importance of the risk and the probability estimates that could have helped in developing the feasibility or mitigating strategies accordingly (Kerzner, 2019). When the team members will not be aware of the follow-up actions that are to be adopted or are not well versed with the backup plan that is to be implemented, then there are very limited chances of minimizing the potential losses that otherwise might have been huge. It also leads to unnecessary time wastage in developing such plans after the risk occurrence that could have been avoided or rather minimized. For instance, initially the risk of exceeding costs in comparison to the budget amounts was a paramount risk and this was increasing the performance level of all team members. The stress level was increasing due to continuous resource depletion but as a manager, this was addressed by redistributing the resources and increasing efficiency to meet the standards set regarding costs. Struggling with your dissertation, get our dissertation editing services at best prices.

Therefore, the importance of the risk register can be justified from the fact that a lot of time and cost can be saved if the core team that is working on the project has already recognized the risk and understands the actions that they have to perform in order to mitigate the problems that have arisen due to such risks.

Justification of the importance of structured communication

It is the duty of project manager make their project successful and therefore, it is necessary to develop strong communication channels where there should be strong interchange or exchange between the different parties and a proper hierarchy should be developed. In order to develop a proper communication channel in the present context, it is necessary to make the team members understand that whom they should communicate with if they face any problems or the communication issues (Fewings and Henjewele, 2019). Interaction Communication model will be adopted because the team will be able to communicate in a two-way pattern. The team members of different committees should communicate with their head and these will be then conveyed to the project manager. If the issue is not resolved, then the communication is further made to the Hod's or the department head and then adequate actions are taken. These will be then conveyed back to the team members thus creating a two-way cycle of communication or interaction. However, since the current project group is smaller there is an increased flexibility of doing direct communications where the team members can directly covey their problem to the project manager.

Team Members---- Department Head------ Project Manager----Hod/ Dean/ Other stakeholders

When the exchange of information is clear and is facilitated by properly segregated, it automatically leads to a more productive team where the members are able to resolve the conflicts or issues that might arise and the QAHE will be able to adopt a proper mechanism where the members can develop a proper application for the university (Dohe and Pike, 2018).      Since this application will act as a platform motivating students to connect with external activities and other environmental changes or trends that the market is currently experiencing, it is necessary to ensure that the desired project is achieved, and the team members are able to integrate the expected results with the actual ones. The hierarchical structure helps in easily communicating the changes that one wants and there is a proper record of the problems that the team members identified and the solutions that were thus developed.

Therefore, developing a proper communication plan using interaction communication model helps in meeting multiple problems that can arise in the undertaking of the project and collectively the team performance is improved.

Critical Analysis of different project management methodologies

There are a variety of project management methodologies that can be adopted in the different types of projects that are adopted and each methodology differentiates on the basis of its complexity and the times that is being consumed (Muller, 2017). Waterfall methodology, Agile Methodology and the Prince 2 Methodology are some of the best methodologies that can be adopted for the project completion.

Prince 2 Methodology: This methodology can be used when the projects are being implemented at a larger scale and categorizes the entire project into different stages. For the QAHE Student Application development, the implementation of this technique might have certain positive or negative aspects associated with it:

Strengths

Weaknesses

  • This methodology will help in identifying all the major activities that are involved in application development such as budgets, timeline, communication plan etc.
  • This tactic helps in identification of the crucial activities to be incorporated in the app development such as hiring external specialists for app development and maintenance etc. (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017).
  • This can help manager in employing their time on more important and productive activities.
  • The fact that this methodology fails to incorporate the soft skills that are required to manage people can act as a major barrier in the productivity of the project.
  • Also, the written documentation is more in Prince2 which can make the task of App development which is solely digital, complicated.
 

Waterfall Methodology: This is best suited when the project is being implemented at a comparatively lower scale and the categorization of different tasks is done in a closely interlinked manner where the next phase can be started only after the initial phase has been completed entirely. For application development, this technique can be analysed in following manner:

Strengths

Weaknesses

  • This is a simple implementation of project management methodology where the tasks are  classified by grouping together activities of similar nature.
  • The application development is an intricate process where constant evaluation is necessary and this methodology will facilitate the process.

 

 

  • When there are a lot of stages in the project implementation and completion, this technique tends to fail because it cannot be applied (Kerzner, 2018).
  • This is an extremely rigid methodology i.e. it is very difficult to incorporate flexibility or changes after a task has been accomplished once. This is not adept with the app development because constant reviewing helps in glitch identification.

Agile Methodology: This project management methodology is implemented when it is possible to break the entire project into smaller and simplified tasks and these are closely linked. The expectations of the targeted customers segment are also integrated with the overall objectives of the project under this technique (Silvius And et.al., 2017). For QAHE Application development, this technique can be reviewed in a following context:

Strengths

Weaknesses

  • This methodology facilitates flexibility in incorporating changes as and when they arise in the market. While developing application there will be numerous changes that need to be incorporated during and after app development. This will help in increasing value of the student application.
  • This methodology also promotes communication between different team members thus increasing the productivity and clarity in the roles. 
  • Although communication is supported, yet the coordination problem enhances because there are increased roles and responsibilities. App development is a confusing task but the parties involved are limited and application of this methodology can lead to confusion in the clearly differentiated roles.
  • Additionally, it in necessary that the project manager is an experienced person who has knowledge about the implementation of the project.
 

The critical evaluation of all the three methodologies above help in analysing that the appropriate methodology for building a student application for the QAHE University, is the Agile Methodology. This will assist in increasing the communication or integration between the team members and this will increase the chances at success. Also, the increased flexibility in adopting and implementing the changes that arise with the change in market trends will help in incorporating further changes or modifications in the application as and when they arise.

Also Read- Entrepreneurship Ventures and Small Business Management

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