The module 'Managing Projects' offers you a best-practice framework in which to learn and apply project management skills. You should plan to join the course with a distinct project in mind. This can be either a workplace-based project, one you are involved in or about to start, or a private project which you wish to carry out on a personal basis.
Examples of previous workplace projects have encompassed many different sectors from IT, finance, 3rd world development, marketing and business development to the more exotic world of Sinology! Examples of previous private projects have included costing options to install solar panels in a private house, the risks and benefits of becoming self-employed, and designing the optimal path for career development.
To run successful projects, managers need to cope with a range of activities and to develop a range of personal qualities and skills. The module starts with the premise that a project is a one-off, non-repeated set of tasks that achieves stated objectives within a set timeframe.
We look at who project stakeholders are, goal-setting, risks and constraints, processes, and how to measure progress against project performance indicators:
- Project preparation including stakeholder analysis
- Project planning using a range of planning tools
- Financial considerations and appraisal
- Managing projects through people including the personal skills needed by project managers
- Implementation processes and the importance of communication
- Project completion, evaluation and “lessons learned”
Learning unit structure:
Preparing a project
- Aims and Objectives
- What is a project? The complexity of a project
- Drawing the boundaries: The stakeholders and their interests, Identifying stakeholders, Setting aims and objectives
- Will it work? Costs and benefits, Estimating the value that the project contributes, Estimating the value in longer term projects
Circumventing financial scrutiny, Risk and contingency planning, Risk assessment and impact analysis
- A basis for action and the project brief
- Contemporary perspectives: Agile stakeholder management, Ethical considerations when managing stakeholders, Contemporary tools for stakeholder management
- Summary
Planning the project
- Introduction, aims and learning objectives
- Taking an overview
- Where do I start? The project plan, Using a logic diagram to identify key stages
- Identifying deliverables
- Mapping tasks and activities: Team structure and responsibilities
- Scheduling: Drawing up a Gantt chart, Identifying the critical path
- Estimating costs, revenues and intangible benefits: Revenues, Costs, Planning for quality
- Drawing up the implementation plan
- Contemporary perspectives
- Summary
Budgeting and finance – Financial techniques for appraising and selling projects
- Introduction, aims and learning objectives
- Some fundamental ideas: Cost of capital and time value of money
- Risk and Blaze-Filip Company
- Importance of cash flows
- Cash flow techniques in project management: Payback, Net present value (NPV), Internal rate of return (IRR), NPV versus IRR
- Applying financial techniques to a project
- Academic and practitioner rationality
- Government and non-profit organisations: a note
- Contemporary perspectives
- Summary
Managing projects through people
- Introduction, aims and learning objectives
- Why people management matters to the successful delivery of projects
- Role of the project manager: Effective communication
- Identifying and involving stakeholders in a project
- Project Team: Assessing the strengths and weakness of a project team
- Dealing with senior management, Political behaviour
- Building relationships across the organization: Negotiation skills
- Satisfying the client and end user
- Contemporary perspectives: Virtual teams, Team roles using Scrum
- Summary
Implementing the project
- Introduction, aims and learning objectives
- Making it happen: Defining team responsibilities, Motivating and preparing staff, Resourcing the project
- Controlling the project: Gathering Information, Interdependency of systems, Project status reports, Project meetings schedule
Maintaining the balance, Tracking progress, Controlling changes in the project
- Managing the communication process, Managing conflict
- Developing solutions to problems arising during projects, Problem solving
- Contemporary perspectives: Beblin's team roles, The agile processes, Scrum ceremonies
- Summary
Completing and Evaluating the project
- Introduction, Aims and Learning Objectives
- Handover and delivery: Delivering with style
- Completing the project: Closing the project, Problems in closure
- Evaluating the project: Evaluating the project at different stages, Evaluation at the end of the project, Designing a formal evaluation, Collecting and interpreting data, Analysing and reporting the results, Following up the report
- Self-development from a project
- Contemporary perspectives: Evaluating the agile project, Evaluation with Scrum
- Summary
Learning targets
You will discover and apply a number of different ways in which projects can be set up and organised and enhance your own capabilities to manage them effectively.
By the end of the course you will have:
- applied a six-step model of project management
- defined the scope of a project in conjunction with stakeholders
- worked with risk assessment and project planning tools
- defined project steps, processes and expected outcomes in order to measure success
- considered the qualities needed by successful project managers
- created a personal self-development plan for the future
This module has been developed in cooperation with the Open University Business School (OUBS).
