1.      Project Life Cycle

The four main elements of the project life cycle are defining, planning, executing and closing. Give an example of a task you performed on a project, either as a leader or team member, and identify what stage of the life cycle it was in and why. Describe if you felt the task was strategically important to the project and also the company. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

2.      The Importance of Project Management

Project management has become an important aspect of business in many companies. Projects are integrated with the strategic views of the corporation to ensure maximum benefits are achieved. Describe how project management techniques enable the company to meet their strategic mission. Do you feel that project management is becoming more important in business today, or less important? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

1.      Project Charter

Describe the importance of a project charter to the project manager. How does a strong project sponsor and clear project scope apply to the overall success of a project? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

2.      Project Management Plan

List three important items that belong within a project management plan, and the importance of breaking the project into phases. Additionally, please comment on the importance of obtaining sponsorship approval when concluding each phase of the project. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

1.      Risk Identification

State the importance of identifying risks and categorizing them as high, medium or low probability. Explain why risks associated with the critical path of the project need special attention. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

2.      Triple Constraint

The “triple constraint” in project management is traditionally time, resources and scope. Provide an example of a project you have been involved with that had limited resources. What types of resource constraints affected the project, and how? Please comment if the limited resources also impacted the timeline and scope of the project. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

1.      Stakeholder Communication

Project managers must understand and communicate with all the stakeholders of a project. The project sponsor is one very important stakeholder that needs to be satisfied with the outcome of a project. Describe why the project sponsor is one of the most important stakeholders, and what a project manager should do to keep them informed of the status of a project. Provide professional examples if possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

2.      Team Development Model

Review the five stage model of team development in the required reading of Chapter 11. Describe a project that you are involved with right now, and the stage that the project team is currently in. Comment on what makes this particular stage enjoyable, or difficult. If you are not involved with a project currently, describe your favorite stage of a project you have been involved with in the past. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

Project Closure

The decision to close a project before actual completion can happen for many different reasons. Describe a project you have been involved with, or of which you have knowledge, where one of these barriers to project success actually occurred and the project closed before completion. Is there something the project manager could have done to prevent the early termination? Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

Globalization and Project Management

The globalization of the workforce is an important trend in many industries and organizations. Not only are some project managers assigned to different countries to complete an assignment, but many virtual teams also have membership that spans different regions of the globe. Describe a project that you have been involved with, or are interested in, that may have a project team that is truly global. Determine the cultural aspects and possible conflicts of that project team, and how a successful project manager can overcome the issues. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings.

Topic: Project managment

Order Description
CASE STUDY:
You have been employed as a Project Manager by Kingston University London to organise a Summer Party to celebrate the end of exams. The event will take place on Friday 15th July 2016. You are to organise all aspects of the event including, booking the entertainment, advertising and ticketing.
Notes:
• You need to define when the project will start. You may select the start date.
• Be sure that the ticket price you offer covers your costs.
• Any costs need to be justified. You may research costs from the Internet, but ensure that you reference where
you got them from in your report.
• You may determine the venue where the summer party will be held. If you cannot find a cost for hiring a venue,
assume that it will cost £1,000. This only includes the hiring of the building and does not include, for example,
the beverages, food and music costs.
• You can assume that the venue is available for you on Friday 15th July 2016. Do not need to contact the
venue directly.
• You may have access to the venue from 5:00am on Friday 15th July 2016 to 11am on Saturday 16th July 2016 to set up and take down the event.
• You must make a minimum of £2,500 profit.
• The executive summary does not count towards the word count.
• See slides in the Teaching Materials section of StudySpace for guidance on how to complete the tasks.
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Checklist – things you may forget about:
• Who are the key staff?
• Where is the venue going to be?
• What transport and accommodation arrangements do you need to make?
• What are the event details?
• Have you created a schedule for the day as well as before the event runs?
• Have you cleaned up after the event?
• Have you returned any hired items?
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Using the case study complete the following tasks:
Task 1 – Prepare a Project Definition (approximately 500 – 1000 words). This is the “who, why, and what” part of the project. It defines all major aspects of the project and forms the basis for its planning and management and also the assessment of overall success. This counts to the word count, including any words you put in tables or figures. You may go over the 1,000 words, but may not go over 2,000 words in total for the group part of the report. For example, if you write 1,200 words, you have 800 words for the rest of the group report. It MUST include the following:

Task 1
Description
Project description -It explains why the project is being undertaken.

SMART objectives – This is the most important part and majority of the document that translates the requirements communicated by the sponsor into specific objectives.

Stakeholders-Anybody who can contribute to the success of the project or influence the failure of the project.

Major Milestones- Key achievements that can be used to monitor progress throughout the project and celebrate successes. These must include dates.

Critical success factors-Measurements that will determine if key achievements (listed as the milestones) have been achieved. The most important will be used to assess if the project can be judged a success.

Task 2 – Produce a work breakdown structure. Aim at listing a minimum of 30 tasks. Remember that tasks and category headings are different. A category heading, for example, is ‘Marketing’, whereas a task underneath this category heading may be to ‘Print the invitations’. There is no maximum number of tasks and you must illustrate the breakdown with a tree diagram. The breakdown should have a clear logical basis, although technical details may vary. Create your own category heading names as required and remember that there can never be only one right way for a project of this nature, as long as you justify your choice. Explain what basis you use to create the categories and tasks. You must make sure that the tasks are broken down in detail. For example, you would NOT have a task called ‘Invitations’, this should be broken down into the tasks to make sure the invitations have been sent out, for example, ‘Design Invitations’, ‘Create Invitations’, ‘Print Invitations’ and ‘Distribute Invitations’. The work breakdown structure diagram does not count towards the word count, but any assumptions
you state will count towards the word count. For example, you may have a category heading called ‘Marketing’ and your assumption will detail how you have approached the students union to help you market the event and recruit
student volunteers.
Task 3 – Produce a work schedule using Microsoft Project 2010 that uses the activities created in Task 2. Create your own time estimates, resource (e.g. people, materials) requirements and costs as required and remember that there can never be only one right way for a project of this nature, as long as you justify your choices. Save this project as PMProjectTask3. The Microsoft Project 2010 diagram does not count towards the word count, but any assumptions you state will count towards the word count. You may not write many assumptions for this task as you have already written them for task 2. Do not repeat yourself. You can reference any costs for resources in this section. Also include your profit and budget evidence with this task.