Project Management - A practical Approach

Introduction 11

PART 1 Practical Theory 15
1 The project 17
1.1 Types of activities, types of work 18
1.2 Examples of projects 19
1.3 What is a project? 20
1.4 Moving from improvised to project based to routine activities 22
1.5 Types of projects 23
1.6 Things to remember 24
1.7 Doing things in phases 25
1.8 Why do things in phases? 28
1.9 The phases of a project: an illustration 29
1.10 When to do it as a project 30
1.11 Lifecycle of a project 31
1.12 Projects should be SMART 32
1.13 Carrying out the projects in this book 33
Assignments 35

2 People working on projects 39
2.1 Line organisation 40
2.2 The project organisation 40
2.3 The project sponsor 43
2.4 Future users 44
2.5 The project manager 44
2.6 The project members 46
2.7 Relationship sponsor and project manager 47
2.8 Task-oriented and people-oriented leadership 47
2.9 Working on a project 48
2.10 Team roles according to Belbin 50
2.11 Digital tools for collaboration 52
2.12 Team agreements 54
2.13 Creativity and brainstorming 55
2.14 Negotiating 56
2.15 Making decisions in a project 57
2.16 Related projects 58
2.17 Outsourcing a project 59
2.18 Projects and cultural differences 60
Assignments 64

3 The project from start to finish 69
3.1 Organising and carrying out the project 70
3.2 Reasons for starting the project 71
3.3 From reasons to do a project to actually doing the project itself 73
3.4 Project proposal 74
3.5 Initial meeting with the sponsor 74
3.6 Setting up the project 75
3.7 Project start-up meeting 75
3.8 Design and preparation 76
3.9 Realisation of the project result 76
3.10 Completion of the project 77
3.11 Project in time 77
3.12 Monitoring aspects of a project 78
3.13 Monitoring projects in practice 79
3.14 Why projects fail 83
3.15 Project risks 87
3.16 Terminating a project prematurely 90
3.17 Project management: methods 90
Assignments 93

4 Planning 97
4.1 Why plan? 98
4.2 Concepts and terms 99
4.3 Gantt charts 100
4.4 Network diagrams 102
4.5 Deriving a Gantt chart from a network diagram 104
4.6 Adjustments to a planning 105
4.7 Which activities are required? 105
4.8 Planning software 107
4.9 Using planning software 108
4.10 Planning a large project in phases 112
4.11 Time management 114
4.12 Mini-course on MS Project on the website 115
Assignments 116

PART 2 How to do a project: methods and tools 121
5 How to do a project – the P6-Method 123
5.1 The P6-Method 124
5.2 Overview of the six steps 125
5.3 Step 1: Initiating the project 127
5.4 Step 2: Organising the project 128
5.5 Step 3: Writing a project plan 129
5.6 Step 4: Executing the project 130
5.7 Step 5: Delivering the project’s results 133
5.8 Step 6: Finalizing the project 133
Assignments 136

6 Writing a project plan 139
6.1 The project plan 140
6.2 Dividing the project plan into sections 140
6.3 Background information 141
6.4 The project’s results 143
6.5 Project activities 146
6.6 Project scope and conditions 148
6.7 Intermediate results 149
6.8 Quality control 151
6.9 The project organisation 151
6.10 Planning 154
6.11 Costs and benefits 154
6.12 Risk analysis 155
6.13 Writing the project plan 157
6.14 The project’s files 158
Assignments 159

7 Using Scrum 163
7.1 Scrum 164
7.2 Scrum applications 164
7.3 The benefits and drawbacks of Scrum 164
7.4 Scrum components 165
7.5 Roles within Scrum 166
7.6 Information during the Scrum process 166
7.7 Meetings during the Scrum process 167
Assignments 169

8 Organising meetings 171
8.1 Project meeting 172
8.2 Preparing for the meeting 172
8.3 The meeting’s agenda 173
8.4 The meeting itself 174
8.5 After the meeting 174
Assignments 177

9 Conducting interviews 179
9.1 Types of interviews 180
9.2 The three stages of an interview 180 Assignments 183

10 Writing a report 187
10.1 Preparing to write the report 188
10.2 Putting the report together 188
10.3 The structure of the report 190
10.4 The main contents and finishing touches to the report 191 Assignments 194

11 Holding a presentation 197
11.1 Organisation and contents of a presentation 198
11.2 Using an overhead projector or screen 199
11.3 The structure of a presentation 200
11.4 The presentation itself 202 Assignments 203

12 Making an executive summary 205
12.1 The purpose of an executive summary 206
12.2 The components of an executive summary 206

Assignments 210
Final Assignments 211

Appendix 1 Risk Analysis 214
Appendix 2 Website www.projectmanagement-english.noordhoff.nl 218

Bibliography 220
About the author 222

Index 223