MGMT07042 2019 Project Management

Discuss the project environment, characteristics, objectives, life cycle phases and the dimensions of project success

Apply numeric, non-numeric, profitability and scoring models in project selection

Discuss the roles and characteristics of project managers and project teams

Describe forms of project organisation and identify factors favouring particular forms

Describe and apply project planning techniques

 Determine the differences between managing and leading a project and handling the influences of stakeholders

Describe how to build a high performance work team

Solve problems relating to resource allocation

The teaching strategy will be through the use of on-line lectures and tutorials with assessments timed to co-incide with the end of delivery of a particular topic so as to re-enforce  and embed the knowledge of the material with the student.

Assessment will be performed throughout the academic period through assignments and mini-examinations.

There will be a final examination at the end of the academic period.

Repeat assessment will be by way of sitting another examination on the subject. Alternatively, at the discretion of the lecturer, assignments covering the deficient areas of the course may be set.

1. Organisation Strategy and Project Selection: The strategic management process, Forces fostering project management; project environment, stakeholders, objectives, scope, specifications and critical success factors. Criteria for model selection; project evaluation factors; numeric and non-numeric models; project portfolio process
2. Organisation Structure and Culture:  Various organisation structure models – Functional, Projectised, Matrix etc.      Organisation culture and its impact on project teams
3. Defining the Project: Setting the scope, establishing the priorities, creating a Work Breakdown Structure, developing a communications plan and responsibility matrices.
4. Estimating Project Times and Costs: Factors influencing quality of estimates, top down versus bottom up, methods of estimation.
5. Developing a Project Plan:      Developing and constructing a project Network, activity-on-node fundamentals, developing and using forward pass and backward pass information. The concept of ‘float’ and Critical path.
6. Managing Risk: Risk identification, assessment, response development, Contingency planning, Risk Response Control and Change Management
7. Reducing Project Duration: Rationale for reducing project, options for accelerating project completion, development of a project cost-duration graph, implications of ‘crashing’ the project.
8. Leadership – Being an Effective Project Manager: Managing versus leading the project, handling stakeholders, Social network building, ethics, building trust and qualities of an effective project manager.
9. Managing Project Teams: Team development Models, Situational factors affecting team development, building high performance project teams, managing virtual teams, and typical team pitfalls.

The content can be used in support of students intending to take the Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK) examinations run by the Project Management Institute (PMI)