Questions and Answers on Project Management
Questions:
Module 1
1) Discuss Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) by illustrating how you apply them
in your workplace context.
2) Critically evaluate the role of Project Manager within different Project
Organisational Structures.
3) Compare and contrast different Project Charts. Further discuss benefits and
limitations of them based on your own experiences.
Module 2
4) Meeting the project deliverables requires meticulous planning, scheduling,
estimating and budgeting. Discuss each stage with reference to one particular
technique you would utilize for each stage by bringing real-life example(s).
5) Effective Project Management requires good monitoring strategy. What advice
would you give project manager on how to best monitor the project and what
tools to use.
6) Building PM competence requires effective training and practice. You are asked
to refer to the Time Management Techniques. How could you apply them at each
stage of the Project Life Cycle? Or, what stages of Project Life Cycle call for more
time management skills?
Module 3
7) You are the project manager. Describe your efforts at risk mitigation of your
most recent project.
8) The post-implementation audit is vitally important in improving the practice of
project management and the process of project management. Yet it is always so
difficult to get senior management and the client to allocate the time to authorize
and participate in these audits. Knowing that, what would you, as a project
manager do to help alleviate this problem?
9) Where in the five-phase life cycle of a project the most failures occur? Defend
your answer and back it up with recommendations/solutions for the future.
Module 4
10) You are the project manager. How would you balance your efforts to get the
project done with your efforts to help team members use their work on the
project to develop themselves professionally? Refer to learning spiral and/or
Team Development Model.
11) What tools could you use to improve overall team performance?
12) Are leaders born or made? Discuss.
Answers
Critically evaluate the role of Project Manager within different Project
Organisational Structures
Project management is a crucial aspect of an organization. Almost all organizations engage in projects that require effective management (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017, p245). Projects may include acquisition of assets, engagement in an investment, or any other activity that intends to bring some income to the business.
Many organizations engage in projects that are capable of generating more funds than the initial outlay. Ideally, for any project to succeed, the project manager should perform his or her roles accordingly.
However, the roles of the project managers differ regarding the type of project organizational structure. Organizational structure has an impact on the role of managers as far as the execution of their mandate is concerned.
The project managers do follow the needs of the organization. Organization structure also defines the organizational objectives. Therefore, this module evaluates the role of project managers in different project organization structures.
Many organizations commonly use a functional project organizational structure. In this organizational structure, the organization is divided into departments. The departments are grouped following the specialization of the personnel involved in that particular area (Harrison and Lock 2017, p233).
Additionally, each department is assigned specific roles. These roles aim at the achievement of the project objectives. The departments in a functional project organizational structure depend on each other.
In this structure, the organization is divided into planning, execution, monitoring, and controlling departments. The organization employs personnel that is experienced in the specific functional areas. Therefore, the managers should work hand in hand with all departments in ensuring that the project is successful.
Moreover, the organization will also employ a project manager who is good at controlling to ensure that every department has competent staff. The team members in every department should have the skills and knowledge of a particular area. Coordination and communication are some of the essential aspects that each department should embrace in this type of project organizational structure.
Many organizations also embrace the Projectized organization structure. In this structure, the organization is organized. These projects differ from one company to another (Kerzner and Saladis 20017, p132).
Despite the number of projects that a company may have, the project manager has overall control over the projects. The project manager is answerable to the execution of the roles of every team member. The project manager ensures that every team member is allocated a work that leads to the success of the project.
Other organizations use the matrix project organizational structure. In this structure, the team members have two bosses to whom they are supposed to report (Aydin and Dilan 2017, p28). The first manager is concerned with functional activities while the other one is concerned with the project.
In other words, there is an operational manager and project manager. Matrix structure incorporates both functional and projectized structures. The team members are supposed to cooperate with both managers for the success of the project.
Effective Project Management requires good monitoring strategy. What advice
would you give project manager on how to best monitor the project and what
tools to use
Monitoring is the most crucial part of project management. Apart from planning and controlling, project managers should have competent monitoring skills (Kropff and DeVries, 2016, p53). Ideally, a poorly monitored project is likely to fail. Therefore, a good monitoring strategy should be put in place to ensure that the project succeeds.
Notably, project managers tend to execute their roles in the success of the project. Poor monitoring strategy can be considered as that which leads to the failure of the project. On the other hand, a good monitoring strategy is that which aims at fulfilling the intended purpose of the project.
In my opinion, the first advice that I would give the project manager is to understand the scope of the project. As far as monitoring is concerned, the scope of the project is likely to determine the monitoring strategy (Sutherland et al., 2010, p230). There are projects of different natures in many organizations.
The projects require various monitoring tools that are relevant in a particular area. The scope of the project entails what needs to be achieved and what needs to be done towards achievement.
Functions and deadlines are some of the essential aspects of the scope of a project. Project managers should be aware of the required tasks of each team member. The manager should be assigned different tasks to those team members who are experienced in specific fields. By doing so, the project manager will be able to monitor the progress of each team member.
Additionally, it would be easy to identify those who are performing well and those who are not on track. As far as the functions are concerned, the project manager can use supervision as a monitoring tool. Strict control should be employed to every team member who is mandated with a specific task.
The project manager can also use deadlines to monitor the progress of the project. In other words, the manager should work with time. The team members should be given a timeline for which they are expected to complete their work. Time is the best monitor in terms of timely projects. Many projects are supposed to be completed at a particular time or date.
Therefore, the manager can use the calendar to forecast the date when the project should be complete. For instance, the manager can inform the team members that the project is supposed to be finished by 23rd May 2019. In this scenario, the team members will keep on working hard to meet the deadline. The manager can keep on reminding the members when the day is approaching.
Apart from understanding the scope of the project, the managers should also develop a budget on how to manage the project resources. I would advise the managers to have excellent budgeting skills as far as the use of the project resources is concerned.
Many projects involve investment in a reasonable amount of money. For the project to succeed, there should be a clear budget on how the money would be used. The main reason for having a budget is to monitor the use of the financial resources of the project. Project managers can use different accounting software such as sage to come up with a reasonable budget.
The post-implementation audit is vitally important in improving the practice of
project management and the process of project management. Yet it is always so
difficult to get senior management and the client to allocate the time to authorize
and participate in these audits. Knowing that, what would you, as a project
manager do to help alleviate this problem?
Every project manager aims at implementing a successful project. For any project to be considered successful, a post-implementation audit is essential. However, research indicates that many managers do not put this step into practice. Ignorance of this crucial step would be one of the causes of project failure. Some projects run for a short period than the expected duration.
As a project manager, I would employ different strategies to ensure that this step is taken into account. I would involve every team member and any other interested party in the post-implementation audit.
I would begin with a successful plan for the post-implementation audit. Planning is a crucial aspect of the execution of any activity. It also offers a guideline on what is expected to be done. Additionally, planning offers a good opportunity for the management to choose the course of action or the best strategy toward the intended audit.
As far as planning is concerned, I would allocate adequate time to do the audit. For instance, I would consider doing the audit in the second quarter after the implementation of the project. Ideally, the provided time would allow the audit team to collect exclusive data about the performance of the project.
Apart from planning, I would inform all the stakeholders of the organization about the audit in a good time. By a good time, I mean the two months before the audit. In this regard, both employees and the management can collect enough evidence on the strength and weaknesses of the project.
Budgeting is an essential aspect of a post-implementation audit. Almost every step in the implementation of a new project involves the use of money (Kerzner 2018, p122). Therefore, I would also allocate an appropriate budget to cater for the expenses that would be incurred during the audit. For the audit to take place, the organization would need an audit staff.
The organization can also decide to use the available internal audit staff. However, the staff would require some additional requirements, such as allowances. I would develop a reasonable budget that covers all the necessary expenses that may arise.
I would create awareness to the senior management on the importance of the post-implementation audit. As a project manager, I would convince the senior management on the merits of the audit as well as the side effects of ignoring this practice. In some cases, the senior manager may not have good knowledge of project management (Jagoda and Samaranayake 2017, p105).
Therefore, I would take the initiative to make sure that senior management is aware of the steps involved in project management. For instance, I would tell the top management that failure to do the audit; the project might fail in the future.
I would base my reasons on the fact that a post-implementation audit would help the management to identify the weaknesses of the project. After that, the administration would consider rectifying the weaknesses for the success of the organization.
Additionally, I would allocate the auditing task to other team members. Their work would be to collect evaluate every aspect of the project. The evaluation would start from the inception of the project. In this case, the team would be able to identify whether the project has met its intended purpose or not. At the end of the period, the team would present an audit report to the senior management.
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