Week_1_Blog_Why_Projects_Fail_James_Montgomery

Week 8 Blog What is contained in a progress status report, who is it of use to and why? If there is no struggle, there is no progress. - Frederick Douglass Progress Status Report is a method of addressing the importance of project communication. It is a regular, formalised report on project progress against the project plan. The Progress Status Report, reports on concerns like schedule, budget, issues, scope change and risks, this report also helps manage expectations. What does it Contain? General Project Information: Project Name Project Manager Number of Resources       2. Milestone Review Milestone Planned Actual       3. Report Details Date Author       4. Issues & Risks Issues Risks Resolutions       5. Project Summary Completion Date Costs Tasks       6. Project Metrics Cost Scope Time This report is very useful to stakeholders and it sh...

 Identify the key objective of project risk management, demonstrate, using an example, how the key elements of a risk management process are constructed and comment on the relationship between a risk management process and a change management process. Risk management is the forecasting and evaluating of financial risks together with identification of procedures to avoid or minimize the impact of these risks. The key elements of risk management are identify, assess, analyse, control, transfer and reduce. 1. Identify - see where the possible problem is and when it might occur, for this I will use the example of producing a movie, potential risks could be actor controversy, writer strikes or delays. 2. Assess - look at each situation and what is actually happening, this is the why? as in why is the actor in trouble, why are the writers on strike, etc. 3. Analyse - Look at the pros and cons of each situation and how it can actually be resolved. 4. Control - take control of the...

Week 5 How Can Project Manager ensure that estimates are accurate and explain how bad estimates can lead to good projects failing. Estimates are an important factor in all business projects, they allow the managers to map out the possible outcomes of the project but in some cases businesses over or under estimate and can even get ahead of themselves seeing the benefits before the project is even off the ground. A project manger is a professional in the field of project management that have the responsibility of planning, procurement and execution of a project. Project mangers can ensure that estimates are accurate in the following ways: Involvement - involving all those involved in the process to get all the right information on cost and time estimates as these people are the expert in their own field and would be able to make much more accurate estimates. Historical Data - use past projects as a way of evaluating how long it will take to complete a project or even how m...

Week 4 - How and why is the WBS constructed and how can it be used to identify risk. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) WBS or Work Breakdown Structure is a key project deliverable that organised work into manageable sections, helps prevent risks and also clearly set out tasks to be completed. Why use WBS? Accuracy - WBS allows businesses to be more accurate with plans and specifically defines and organises the scope of the project. Through the use of hierarchical structures businesses can break down objectives into smaller measurable chunks. Control - WBS gives the business more control over the project as it assigns responsibilities, resource allocation and motorization. It allows processes to be more precise and concrete as everyone knows exactly whats been accomplished. Double Check - WBS allows businesses to double check what stakeholders actually want and that nothing is missed out or overlapped. How to Construct WBS? In order to construct a WBS the business ...

Definition Phase By James Montgomery – X00120274 The Project definition phase provides the groundwork for project planning. Describe the key activities and outputs from this phase and explain the risks that this activity minimises. Below is a diagram of the 5 Phase Project Life Cycle: 1. Conceptual Phase – carefully examine the idea to see if it will benefit the business and if so in what way. This is were a lot of the decision making is made and looks at whether the project is actually feasible or not are we being realistic and can it be done? 2. Definition Phase – this is the planning stage and sets out the charter or scope of the project in writing showing where the business is going and how to actually get there. This section also looks at the budgets, schedules and resources so that the project process runs smoothly from conceptual to divestment. 3. Production Phase – in this section the tasks are distributed so that everyone knows what to do and what part they pla...

Week 1 - Blog - Why IT Projects Fail? From my reading of Lars Mieritz's article based on why projects fail, I have deduced that large projects are more likely to fail compared to that of smaller IT Projects as size really does matter. Large projects require more effort and a vast amount of time being put into them while smaller projects are easier to manage. Larger IT Projects require bigger budgets which increases the level of risk of projects failing. Gartner's Survey of 150 participants saw that Large IT Projects budgets exceeded $1 million and had a 72% success rate compared to a 28% failure rate. Medium IT Projects had budgets between $350,000 - $1 million with a 75% success rate compared to 25% failure rate. Finally Smaller IT Projects had budgets less than $350,000 and had a higher success rate of 80% compared to 20% failure rate. From the failure rates it is clearly more risky to pursue a Large IT project 28% compared to a Smaller IT project at 20%. There are ...