Project Management and Operation Planning - Coursework Example

Project Management Institution Affiliation Date Project management 1. Chart flows can be used to produce accurate timescales for projects. Therefore, this helps to ensure that the various parts of a project are completed within the required time. Chart flows show the responsibility of each person and the expectations from the projects. Also shown is breakdown structure of projects, how team members are required to work together on projects and how different works relates to others. Information from the chart shows the projects manager how many people are working on the project, the progress of the project and helps analyze if the project is in line with the initial expectation. It provides timely correction and errors improving and enhancing project completion. 2. Budgeting affects the financial aspects of a project. Acquiring raw materials, personnel, government licenses and other factors that are associated with a project require money. Budgeting, therefore, helps keep track of the expenditures of a project to ensure it does not become incomplete due to lack of money or related resources (Kerzner, 2013).  Budgeting also helps assess the viability of projects to see if they are profitable or not. However, this helps people engage in successful projects preventing unfinished projects that are not viable Time is a very crucial factor in project management. Time affects projects in that: projects are usually undertaken with consideration to the market and environmental conditions to make gains. Schedule of projects help projects be in line with the objectives of the project and to have a favorable market and environmental conditions. For example, a school project construction is set to be completed when schools nearly open. Untimely construction will negatively impact the goals. Human resource has a significant impact on the quality and effectiveness of a project. Whether it is in manufacturing, marketing, construction or public relations, Hiring skilled and experienced personnel enables quality, reliability, durability and overall success of a project. It allows attainment of set project objectives. Hiring unqualified staff leads to errors, untimely completion, and poor quality projects. 3. Risks assessment is the process of conducting risk identification, analysis, prioritization, response and control of risks. The objective of risk assessment is to decrease the likely hood and impact of negative events on the project. It evaluates the effect of event occurrences and how they will affect a project. Risk assessment involves analyzing the effect of uncertainties and follows up with the coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor and control the impact of unwanted events to as to increase benefits realized from projects. The rissk may come from many unexpected sources such as financial markets, stiff competition, the threat of project failures and even government legislation. 4. A mission statement defines and outlines the business of an organization and its approach to attaining the set objectives while a vision statement describes the future expectation of the organization by showing the organization's purpose, goals and ethical values that guide the organization in the journey to attaining their targets. 5. A strategic plan refers to processes that are done by top level management to see where the organization wants to be in the future. They are ideas that help to know what should be done to peruse the organization vision, mission, and objectives. Planning is made for the whole organization and determines internal and external environmental factors that directly and indirectly affect the organization. The tools used for the process of analyzing the environmental factors include: SWOT Analysis which establishes the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization, Portfolio Analysis, PEST Analysis which focuses on political, economic, social, technological and demographical factors affecting and organization and Lastly porters 5 forces that include threat of new entrants, buyer bargaining power, supplier bargaining power, substitute products and presence of rival sellers. These tools help the organization to attain its objectives. Operation planning refers to processes which determine the day to day activities of an organization. It is done to support the strategic plans to accomplish organization goals. It focuses and defines the short-term objectives of the organization. Middle-level management performs it, and the organization is divided into various departments and units for which planning is performed. Its features include a definition of clear objectives, achievement of desired results, maintenance of quality standards, deciding on activities to be performed and measuring performance. 6. Project documents are usually kept so that they can be referred to if the organization undertakes a similar project in the future. The successful activities can be useful for future projects. A carefully structured project closure reports should: document the success and failures of the project, provide physical records of the planned and actual budget schedule. Show the time periods of the activities undertaken within the project, provide recommendation future projects of the same size and type, provide the record of personnel involved in the activities. It should also show the skills expertise and experience used in carrying out the project, if and how customers’ expectations were met and lessons learned from a project. Lastly, a project report should have an official sign-off which is signed as the project is handed to the customer after completion. Recommendations for future projects of similar size and nature, contacts about workers and applied expertise used to meet project objectives and goals, how the customer expectations were met, lessons gained, and project sign-off. Sections of this report include: Project background – shows the background of the project and provides the information for future review Project completion – indicates whether the project objectives met the customer’s satisfaction. Project completion criteria – shows the customers’ expectations were met and list the criteria which used to confirm completion of the project. For each criterion it assesses whether or not success was achieved to the customer's satisfaction Outstanding Items – lists any remaining items that can be used in future projects Project Closure – shows the steps required for the handover of the project and documentation to the customer, the completion of supplier services, the release of project resources and Specific information related to closing the project. Final and actual budget– shows and compares the estimated and actual costs of the project. Project Transition – identifies a transition plan of handing project items to the customer Technical Transition – shows details needed for development support to designated technician Closure Communication - Identify a plan to communicate the project closure to all stakeholders and interested parties 7. Aims and examples of health and safety legislations Health and safety legislations aim at: Ensuring conducive working environments for workers Ensuring operators are equipped appropriate, training and knowledge in handling equipment Ensuring that equipment is inspected after installation new locations for safety purposes Ensuring that the work material is suitable for their intended purpose and used only for that purpose Ensuring provision of work equipment’s that meet relevant safety standards Ensure projects undertaken meet the appropriate standards Ensures that safety equipment’s such as first aid kits are available in projects Ensures that safety instruction are provided to prevent injuries in projects Ensuring that projects undertaken are not hazardous Ensuring relevant safety equipment’s such as gloves are available and used in projects e Ensuring projects are well-equipped with appropriate emergency equipment’s such as fire extinguishers, fire detectors, and alarms Examples of health and safety legislations include: Health and safety at work regulation 1974 which outlines the safety and health measures that are required at work places, the reporting of injuries disease and dangerous occurrences regulations which provides procedures in case of the above occurrences, the control of hazardous substances to health which controls projects to ensure they are not harmful to people, the provision and use of work equipment that provides workers to be provided with safe equipment’s in carrying out activities and the health and first aid regulation which ensures workers are provided with first aid kits to help in case of injuries Managing meetings 1. Information sharing meetings These are meetings where a speaker or speakers share information with the audience. It may be information about products, objectives or other things the audience is usually very attentive and active in seeking clarity. The speaker normally is at the front while the audience is before him. All the audience faces the speaker, and there is the use of technology like projectors and sign interpretation to ensure effective communication. A good example is a lecture. Decision-making meetings These are meetings where people come together to go through the decision process and make decisions only there is an exchange of information among members, small discussions for providing for justifications, and voting and decision making. Members sit tightly together and the team leader at the center. Team building meetings These are meetings that aim at contributing to team building, strengthening relationships and building team culture. Members do not sit in any formal arrangement but in any way they are comfortable depending on what activities they will do during the meeting. They include team building and attendance of corporate events. 2. Attributes of an effective meeting The meeting must be time conscious and time is kept accurately as assigned to the different agendas, all the members participate actively. It must have a clear plan and stick to that, the meeting must start and end on time, participants are substantially prepared, and minutes are properly taken, all the agendas are discussed and a vote is taken where necessary, members behave correctly and there are no tempers or misunderstandings among members Responsibilities of the Chairperson during the meeting Start the meeting on time, outline roles, and responsibilities of members, Establish rules and guidelines, Participate as a team member, Follows the agenda and keeps the meeting focused on points, Summarizes key decisions and actions, Record recommendations and allocate responsibilities for specific tasks, Closes the meeting on time. 3. Why the chairperson should understand group dynamics Understanding dynamics refers to understanding members behaviors and how they react or their psychological processes. It is important for chairs to understand because of the following: ensure that discussions do not deviate from the topic, to ensure equal participation by giving chances to those who are not vocal, avoid picking sides in an argument but use facts, to prevent any personal attacks and ensure members behave accordingly. 4. Face to face meetings These are meetings where the parties involved meet physically and exchange information and ideas personally. Advantages include: they allow for clarity, provide sensitive feedbacks and prevents people from multitasking during The benefits are that they may be expensive regarding traveling cost and unavailability of people to meet due to various reasons Online meetings People exchange information over the internet. It’s convenient as it does not involve traveling and allows quick decision making. Advantages are its expensive, relies on internet connectivity and technological items that may not be available to everyone, information can be hacked. Conferencing These is similar to online meetings but allows for both audio and visual streaming of information.it allows quick decision making and is convenient although it uses technology that is not available to everyone and reporting may be processed differently leading to misunderstandings. 5. Sequence of a meeting Calling the meeting to order to declare it open The meeting is called to order, and everyone’s attention is captured, there is confirmation of those present and presentation of agenda for approval. Members who wish to raise other matters or the change order of business. Time is also assigned to the programme items Roll call and apology The secretary reads out apologies from absent members and records those of who are present Reading and confirmation of previous meetings The secretary reads out the minutes from the last meeting for approval, if there are any corrections or deletions, the vote is taken and the amendments made if agreed, if not the minute's additions remain unchanged. Matters arising out of minutes These are concerns in the minutes which need further discussion, and they are discussed at this point if any. Financial report The treasurer reads and circulates the financial statement, and any payments obligations are approved or disapproved Any other business Members can raise minor matters that have not been discussed if they are important they are added to the next meeting’s agenda Closing the meeting When all business is finished the chairperson thanks the members for attending, communicate dates for the next session and the meeting is closed Managing payroll 1. The three things that can ensure the security of a payroll. Payroll contains important details and information which may be financial or health information of an individual. Insecurity of the payroll system can lead to leakage of this information which can be used in a harmful way to the owner. Therefore, the following measures can help ensure the security of the payroll system. Logging off of the system when not in use to prevent random access by people, setting passwords that only authorized persons from having access to, this prevents those unauthorized from accessing it. Positioning the computer screen so that unauthorized people cannot view the display, setting up the payroll system in a controlled room where only authorized people can gain access, not discussing the details of an employee to avoid leakage of valuable financial information, ensuring that only authorized people are given information regarding employees pay details and lastly ensuring that the payroll data is used only for the intended purpose so that it is not accessible for use in a wrong way. 2. Allowance claims are monetary compensations provided to employees for the problems, hardships or expense they incur in the process of attaining organization goals. They may include house allowance, transport allowance, and hardship allowance. Organization use a variety of ways to ensure the benefits are substantiated as follows: Organization provides housing and transportation facilities to their employees, they provide favorable working conditions that are not hazardous to employees, They offer services such as medical services within the organization, they offer meals at workplaces to reduce the expenses on the employee’s salary and they encourage employees to pool resources together in order to manage the salaries well and also offer small loans to that employees do not view depend on their wages and this is a measure compliment giving them allowances. 3. Four payroll control measures Control measures are processes and procedures that ensure the effectiveness of the payroll system. Payroll control measures include supervision of time sheets which helps evaluate the number of hours worked and the starting dates for workers enabling to determine the pay day. Another is employees signing when receiving cheques or cash after collection to prevent double pay or none pay of employees. Setting up of passwords and codes that restrict access to ensure that only authorized persons can access them and only authorized transactions are done. Lastly division of duties to more than one person to make the process easier and to prevent collusion by people in charge of the system 4. The current employment standard became applicable in the year 2000, and they cover the following; Hours of work for employees. Employees should have regular working hours between 7 am and 7pm otherwise they should be paid overtime. Employees should work for a maximum of 38 hours a week which can be part-time or full time. Secondly, it covers employee’s flexible working arrangements where they can request for flexible work periods and conditions if they are parents of a young child, a child with a disability, if they are experiencing domestic violence or they provide care to a family member who requires support. Thirdly we have parental leave which is entitled to employees when they give birth or adopt young children. They have the right to get back to their old jobs after the unpaid leave. Another is sick leave which is provided due to personal illness or family emergencies that involve a family member. Lastly, there is annual leave which is provided for all employees except casual ones, and they allow employees to be paid while having time off from work 5. Deductions Deductions may be statutory or voluntary. Statutory are those that are deducted automatically by employers and remitted to the government such as income tax; Value added tax and social security and medical care contributions. Voluntary is those provided willingly by employees such as life insurance contributions; savings plan contributions and contributions for loan repayment installments. 6. Why it is important for payrolls to have designated time frames Employees have expected expenses that they need to cater for such as house rents, loan repayments and specific payroll time frames help them to plan on how to commit to these expenditures. The government collects taxes from all working citizens and the payroll time frames enable deduction of statutory taxes and the payment of voluntary taxes by the employees promptly to avoid penalties. It also ensures the security of employees as payment of salaries on scheduled time periods shows the financial abilities of the organization making employees want to be committed and be loyal to the organization .Employees need to be paid on a consistent basis without delays which motivate them to work hard and sacrifice for the organization 7. Payroll reports There are various payroll reports that can be generated by payroll systems to assist in checking accuracy of data and records they include; payroll register report which shows the list of all employees that are paid, payroll audit report which monitors the salaries paid the money provided for paying employees and lastly payroll overpayment or underpayment report which checks for any overpayments or underpayments paid to employees. 8. Payment summary Payment summary must be produced to employees by the 14th of July every year when they need to file their income tax returns, when they are requested by a court of law for purposes of divorce, when the employee is switching jobs, when employees apply for loans from financial institutions, and the financial institution requests them and when they terminate their employment Market research techniques 1. There are primary and secondary market research methods .primary methods are those done first hand by the business or individual to gather information that can help in identifying opportunities in them market. Secondary research refers to collection information from documented sources which have already been examined by other people or organizations. Primary market research techniques include the following. Focus groups These involves getting people to gather in a particular place and asking them questions that may provide relevant information regarding products, the market structure, pricing, competitors, their preferences and general feedback. For it to be effective the people involved must have something in common for example they may be of the same age group, same gender, same line of business and others. They are then compensated by vouchers, gifts, and coupons money or company products. Focus groups are helpful in understanding consumer tastes, preferences, and expectations which help the organization in structuring their products according to their needs. Questionnaires Questionnaires are a very efficient way of conducting market research. They involve providing papers with specific questions which people are supposed to answer. The questions should be structured for the respondents to provide the necessary information needed by the researcher. Respondents fill in their replies to the issues and give back the questionnaires to the researcher for review. It is an important method as it allows for clarity of the questions where the respondents do not understand and provide firsthand information since it allows for face to face interaction of both parties. After getting feedback from the people, the researcher incorporates the feedback to his/her business operations and be able to perform competitively in the market. Surveys They are like questionnaires but are involved more in conducting research by acquiring information from organizations rather than individuals. Research people go to the field and visit different relevant bodies or people and ask about the information they need. Surveys are also conducted through the internet in the form of questionnaires; this enables coverage of a wider and more diverse range of respondents. The researcher analyses the provided information and uses it to venture into the market. Observation These involves physical observation through interactions and communication with the respondents. Researcher interacts with the people and observes their behaviors towards certain factors such as products, prices and brand of goods. Observation helps to understand the needs and reactions of the consumers and the market situation enabling the researcher to focus on the trends and provide the necessary results regarding products and market requirements. Experimentation  This method involves testing the market to get insights on products competition and customer preferences. It is done out in the field or controlled environments. For example, a food company wants to know the factors that affect the performance of a variety of products in the market so as to focus on producing the product to achieve maximum sales. They package the food products in three different styles and sell the products to various consumers. After some time it analyses the sales and concludes on the preferred packaging design. Experimentation is a good method because it gives facts, unlike the others which are not proven. Interviews  Unlike focus groups, they involve interaction between one researcher and a respondent. It takes into consideration the kinds of choices and preferences a customer has and the reasons. Different set questions are used to get the customers view, and they are analyzed and used to conclude on the final product delivery. Secondary market sources are sources that already exist. They include articles, sales records, balance sheet records, inventory records, the internet, research journals and business magazines Reference Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons. Read More