December 28, 2017

How PRINCE2 supports good project governance?

There are 6 topic in the box with references. Each one need 400 words and no need in text reference. Please follow the questions of each one to do one by one. Any references are given below is important, so use it carefully please

· Project Planning

1. What is project planning?

2. What is time-scheduling and how does it help in planning a project?

3. What tools are available to help project managers plan out tasks?

4. What is Critical Path Analysis? How does it work?

5. Practice your techniques for CPA.

References:

· “A schedule is the timetable for a project. It shows how the work will progress over a period of time and takes into account factors such as limited resources and estimating uncertainty.” APM (2012)

· WBS diagrammatic view

· Based upon three estimates of duration for the activity:

Most optimistic (a)

Most likely (m)

Most pessimistic (b)

Weighted average = a + 4m + b

· Gantt Charts

· Critical path analysis

Background: Developed in the late 1950’s by Remington Rand Univac. Improved the control of production to sales turnaround.

Purpose: To calculate the longest sequence of dependent activities needed to complete the project.

Use: Enables the PM to see the impact of delays/which activities can tolerate delays. Float highlights delay tolerance

Method: Two stages:

forward pass (earliest start)

reverse pass (latest start)

· Learning Lessons

1. Why is ‘lessons learned’ important in Project Management?

2. How can lessons be captured?

3. What are the advantages and barriers of capturing lessons?

4. How can lessons be used?

References:

· ‘…knowledge and experiences gathered in different projects are not being systematically integrated into the organisational knowledge base…’

· ‘Lessons learned are able to provide competitive advantage if used properly.’

· ‘Companies could save considerable costs, which result from redundant work and the repetition of mistakes, if they master the project learning cycle.’

Process-based methods:

· Project review/project audit

· Post control

· Post-project appraisal (2 years)

· After action review

Documentation based:

· Micro article

· Learning histories (anonymous)

· Systems issues:

· Capture

· Storage

· Retrieval

· Project ‘amnesia’

· Time

· Motivation

· Discipline

· Skills

· Barriers:

· Temporary nature leads to knowledge loss

· Lack of senior support

· Lack of standard processes

· Reluctance to share

· Time pressure

· Stakeholder Management

There should be a distinct structure to your answer, which may include:

1. What is Stakeholder Management? (Possible definition)

2. Briefly highlighting what the stakeholder management process is, with an emphasis on what the ‘analysis’ part of the process aims to achieve.

3. How stakeholder management contributes to large scale projects.

4. Examples of analysis tools that might be used (i.e. stakeholder management matrix, stakeholder mapping, stakeholder management cycle) – citing theory where appropriate.

5. Benefits – which may include: winning support for the project, winning resources, publicising the project, influencing key stakeholders, stakeholders having input into how the project is shaped, continuous monitoring of stakeholders.

6. Challenges – can be subjective, can be forgotten after planning stage, can cost money, or take up time that the project management team can’t afford (particularly on large scale projects where scope may change and where there may be a large number of stakeholders).

7. Summary – Acknowledgement of how stakeholder management contributes to successful project management, with a particular emphasis on large scale projects, and why on larger scale projects it is even more important (complexity, more risky, likely to change etc).

References:

· Stakeholder management is the systematic identification, analysis, planning and implementation of actions designed to engage with stakeholders

Risk Management

1. What is Risk Management?

2. How does it help a project in achieving success?

3. What tools/techniques/theories are available for Project Managers to use to assess and respond to project risks?

4. Selecting one of those tools, critically discuss how this might be used. Support your answer with appropriate example.

References:

Project Teams

1. What is a project team?

2. How can a project manager ensure he/she enables a team to perform well? What models/theories help us to understand team performance on projects?

3. What are the barriers to effective teamwork on a project? How can a project manager try to overcome these barriers?

4. Explain some of the key challenges a project manager may face when bringing together a new team. Propose how these challenges can best be managed.

References:

Project Governance

1. What are the four principles of effective project governance (Garland 2009)?