All projects are different and the planning for each will be different. The difficulty with planning a unique activity is that there is no prototype from which to predict all the work that will need to be done, so the plan must evolve as work proceeds. Reviewing any similar projects that have been completed within the same organisation or in a similar setting to identify lessons that could be applied in a new project can be helpful.
Factors that need to be agreed when preparing and planning a project:
- What actions are needed?
- By when are these actions needed?
- Who is going to do them?
- What resources are required?
- What other work is not going to be done?
- How shall we know if it is working?
Task 3
Describe how to plan and manage risks and identify four types of risk that may occur during a project.
Risk management is an important part of project management. Although often overlooked, it is important to identify as many risks to your project as possible, and be prepared if something bad happens.
Here are some examples of common project risks:
- Time and cost estimates too optimistic.
- Customer review and feedback cycle too slow.
- Unexpected budget cuts.
- Unclear roles and responsibilities.
- Stakeholder input is not sought, or their needs are not properly understood.
- Stakeholders changing requirements after the project has started.
- Stakeholders adding new requirements after the project has started.
- Poor communication resulting in misunderstandings, quality problems and rework.
- Lack of resource commitment.
Risks can be tracked using a simple risk log. Add each risk you have identified to your risk log; write down what you will do in the event it occurs, and what you will do to prevent it from occurring. Review your risk log on a regular basis, adding new risks as they occur during the life of the project. Remember, when risks are ignored they don't go away.
Task 4
Explain how to monitor a project including:
- The purpose of monitoring a project
- Three methods of monitoring a project
- Why it is important to meet agreed targets during a project.
Monitoring is the systematic gathering and analysing of information that will help measure progress on an aspect of your project. Ongoing checks against progress over time may include monetary expenditure against the project budget. Monitoring is not evaluation as such but is usually a critical part of your evaluation process and should therefore be included at the project planning stage.
Before undertaking any monitoring it is important to consider:
- Why you want to monitor
- What you will monitor
- Key features of effective monitoring
Keeping records and monitoring activities helps people see progress and builds a sense of achievement. Records can be useful and even essential when promoting the group or applying for funding.
The following list of questions will help you decide on your monitoring objectives:
- What information will help to make informed decisions? What will help us know that our project/group is on track?
- What's the appropriate scale for monitoring
- What are our timeframes for monitoring e.g. days, months or years?
- Do we need input from other groups or agencies?
Monitoring can be considered to be effective when:
- Valid techniques are used.
- Aspects relevant to your project are measured.
- It is carried out regularly and consistently.
- Accurate records are kept.
- It is used as part of your evaluation to support or adjust project goals and actions.
Task 5
Explain the purpose of evaluating a project and two ways of doing so.
Evaluating a project is about looking critically at what is happening in the project and making a judgement about its value, worth or benefit. Evaluation is important because it can tell us:
- how the project is going
- what effect it is having
- what changes we need to make to improve it .
Often people get slightly threatened by the thought of evaluation. It may suggest criticism by others. The essence of evaluation is not to lay blame or fault on people, but to find ways of doing things better and to show what has gone well. Evaluation is a positive process. There are some ways of evaluating that you will be able to integrate easily into project work.
Ways to evaluate include:
- Is the project working
- Has it achieved what was planned
- Can you justify doing the project
- Determine if the effort is worth it
- Can I justify the resources used
- Sharing experiences
Because evaluation is about making a judgment about the value of the project, people's own values, knowledge, responsibilities and accountabilities will affect the results they want and expect from it. Therefore, it is very important that everyone with an interest in the project is clear about what the project is for - a result that comes from good planning.
Cost Benefit Analysis or CBA is a relatively simple and widely used technique for deciding whether to make a change. As its name suggests, to use the technique simply add up the value of the benefits of a course of action, and subtract the costs associated with it.
Costs are either one-off, or may be ongoing. Benefits are most often received over time. We build this effect of time into our analysis by calculating a payback period. This is the time it takes for the benefits of a change to repay its costs. Many companies look for payback over a specified period of time – e.g. three years.
In its simple form, cost-benefit analysis is carried out using only financial costs and financial benefits. For example, a simple cost/benefit analysis of a road scheme would measure the cost of building the road, and subtract this from the economic benefit of improving transport links. It would not measure either the cost of environmental damage or the benefit of quicker and easier travel to work.
Almost everything we do in today's business world involves a risk of some kind: customer habits change, new competitors appear, factors outside your control could delay your project. But formal risk analysis and risk management can help you to assess these risks and decide what actions to take to minimise disruptions to your plans. They will also help you to decide whether the strategies you could use to control risk are cost-effective.
Different people will have different views of the impact of a particular risk – what may be a small risk for one person may destroy the livelihood of someone else.
