Project Management: Key Characteristics, Budget Generation, Risk Responses, And Quality Methods

Project Characteristics

The success of the project depends on the management of project activities according to the goal and objectives of the enterprise. The focus should be given on identifying the risks associated with the project and setting quality standards for the project. The project can be characterised as:

Define: The goal and objectives of the project should be clearly defined

Unique: The deliverables of the project should be according to the project mission

Resources: The availability of resources should meet the demand of the project

Customer requirement: The requirement specification plan should be prepared for focusing the requirement and demands of the customers

Risks identification: The project can be successfully completed by developing proactive risk mitigation plan.

The scope statement is prepared for specifying the in-scope and out-of scope activities to complete the given task within the time frame. The scope of the project focuses on the activity schedule, project strategy, communication plan, and procurement plan to complete the given task successfully.

The work breakdown structure shows the flow of processes and associated task to be completed by the participating units to achieve the final goal and mission of the enterprise within the allocated time and cost. The success and failure of the project depends upon the efficiency of the work breakdown structure to complete the given task within the given duration of time. It helps in setting boundaries and deliverables of the project.  

The pre-requisite which should be focused for the construction of the budget are deploying the market analysis for measuring the price and cost of the resources, estimation of direct cost and indirect cost, and analysis of cash inflow and outflow. The analysis of market price helps in reducing the difference between the actual cost of the resources and their estimated cost. The focus should be given on analysing the following cost:

• Direct Cost: The direct cost which are associated with the projects are salary and wages for the employees, resources, raw material, training and development program, hardware and software requirement, and others.
• Indirect cost: The consideration should be given on the monitoring procedures, administration control, communication tools, internet facility, social networks, and others. 

The project success can be achieved by analysing the risks associated with the project at an early stage. The consideration should be given on determining the mitigation plan to resolve the complexities proactively. The risks allocation procedure should be followed for distributing the responsibilities among the team member for managing the risks effectively. The following table shows the risks identification and mitigation plan:

Risks	Response
Technical Risks	The training and development program should be arranged for the employees to adopt new technology and techniques.
Market Risks	Deployment of continuous improvement plan to resolve the market demand
Financial Risks	Estimation of cost by analysing the market price of the resources
Legal risks	Good and healthy relationship with the public sector
Political risks	Developing partnership with the public sector
Process risks	Forecasting the output of the process undertaken
Employee risks	The grievance handling program should be laid down for managing the employees risks

The consideration should be given on the procedures of risks identification, risks avoidance, risks mitigation, risks allocation, risks transfer, and risks acceptance. 

The success of the project can be achieved by developing the quality standards for the undertaken activities and resources used.

Scope Statement and Role of Work Breakdown Structure

Project Evaluation: The project can be successfully completed by forecasting the output generated from the process undertaken. The checklist should be prepared from the requirement specification plan to evaluate the success criteria of the project.

Quality monitoring: The quality can be monitored by giving emphasis on the following

• Process undertaken
• Development of the scope management plan
• Development of the communication strategy
• Development of the resource management plan
• Development of the continuous improvement plan
• Development of the documentation for future improvement
• Analysis of the technologies and processes used by the market competitors.

Quality Control:

The control standards and procedures should be laid down for improving the quality of the project. The focus should be given on analysing the critical path of the project, development of the network diagram to analyse the flow of communication, developing control sheets, checklist evaluation, and continuous improvement plan.

The ABC PLC is the company dealing with the manufacturing of the food and drinks item. The DEF ltd. is going to manage association with the ABC PLC. Company. It helps in increasing the sale of the organization which in turn helps in increasing the net turnover of the enterprise. The aim of this paper is to develop a project management life cycle for managing the acquisition between ABC PLC company and DEF ltd. company. The deployment of the project management plan helps in the completion of the project activities. The consideration should be given on the data collection procedures used for gaining information for the internal and external customers of the project. The voice of the customers and leadership qualities of the project manager are the two pillars for achieving project success.

The scope of the project is to develop an acquisition between the ABC and DEF company to gain profit of the enterprise. The focus should be given on following the ethical laws to develop effective relationship between them. The In-scope activities of the project are highlighted below:

• Development of the project communication plan
• Development of the project activity schedule
• Development of the resource management plan
• Periodic arrangement of meetings between the board of ABC and DEF
• Setting list of deliverables
• Setting target for gaining profit
• Identifying the gaps and flaws in the current working of the companies (Raz, Shenhar,  and Dvir, 2011)
• Setting continuous improvement plan for growth
• Managing authorisation to the employees for completing their given tasks
• Evaluating the expected outcome of the acquisition    

Particulars	Cost ($)
Salary and Wages	12000
Hardware cost	1200
Software cost	500
Internet facility	500
Organization infrastructure changes	800
Market Analysis	800
Misleneous	700
Total	16500

The good project manager should have following characteristics:

• Clear Vision and Goal: The goal of the project manager should be clear and precise. The articulation of the activities should be clear and according to the project mission and objectives (Otieno, 2014).
• Good communication skills: The project manager should have good communication skills so that the team members can effectively chare their views, thoughts, ad grievance for the positive working environment.
• Ethical code of conduct: The good project manager should possess ethical code of conduct to develop an ethical environment, setting values, honesty, and commitment towards the goal and mission of the project (Passenheim, 2015).
• Leadership quality: The good manager should have good leadership skills and quality so that the team spirit, cooperation, and coordination can be effectively developed between the team members. The potential risks associated with the project should be forecasted so that the project can be completed smoothly.
• Effective Decision: The good project manager should have a quality of taking effective decision in emergency situation for the management of resources, division of role and responsibilities, communication flow, and others (Patanakul, 2010). The incapability of the project manager in taking effective decision can affect the project success adversely.
• Task Division: The project manager should possess good observation skills to analyse the capabilities of the stakeholders and team members to divide the task among them.
• Grievance handler: The project manager should be a good grievance handler so that the chaos ad conflicts of the team members can be effectively managed.
• Good Team building: The project manager should have a quality for motivating the team members positively. The criteria for division of work should be clearly defined within the given time frame.
• Management: The management of the project activities is the key role of the project manager. The coordination and cooperation can be managed for analysing the process flow between the team members.

The development of the project scope helps in identifying the in-scope and out-of-scope activities which should be undertaken for achieving the required goal and objectives. The boundaries of the project should be determined for completing the project within the given time and cost. The scheduling of the project activities and division of role and responsibilities among the team members helps in identifying the gaps, flaws, issues, and risks associated with the project working plan. The development stakeholder engagement plan focuses on defining the flow of information between the participating members of the team. The project scope statement of developing the acquisition between the ABC PLC organization and the DEF ltd company focuses on the following activities:

Project Name	Acquisition between ABC and DEF
Project Sponsor	James Thomson
Date of project approval	12 Sep, 2018
In-scope activities	Development of the project communication plan Development of the project activity schedule Development of the resource management plan Periodic arrangement of meetings between the board of ABC and DEF Setting list of deliverables Setting target for gaining profit Identifying the gaps and flaws in the current working of the companies (Crawford, 2013) Setting continuous improvement plan for growth Managing authorisation to the employees for completing their given tasks (Jyothi, and Parkavi, 2016) Evaluating the expected outcome of the acquisition
Out-of-activities	Arrangement of the training and development program Monitoring of the acquisition Development of the continuous improvement plan
Project Deliverables	Program for managing Acquisition between ABC and DEF Project Schedule Cost estimation plan Project Management framework
Acceptance Criteria	The project will be successfully accepted by analysing the deliverables of the project, profit gained by the enterprise, setting of target profit, and increasing sales of the organizations
Constraints	Difference in the day to day sale report of the food and drink items Time period to complete the given task of acquisition Difference in the estimated cost and actual cost of the project
Assumption	Employees are having skills and expertise according to the project requirement WBS is accepted by the working employees Division of role and responsibilities is accepted by the working employees

• Project Initialization: The requirement of the customers and the owner of the project should be taken under consideration for signing the acquisition between the ABC and DEF Company for increasing the profitability of the enterprise (Markovic, 2017). The focus should be given on increasing the sale in the different branches of the DEF Company opened in the United Kingdom. The development of the requirement specification plan helps in gathering required information for the project in terms of resources, material, agreement, previous year annual report of the two company, and others.
• Project Planning: The project plan should be developed according to the requirement placed by the project owner and director of the ABC and DEF company with the aim to increase the profitability and turnover of the enterprise (Monnappa, 2017). The project planning phases focuses on determining the in-scope and out-of-scope project activities, development of the resource management plan, development of the project schedule, development of the cost management and estimation plan, development of the time schedule, development of the communication management plan, development of the stakeholder engagement plan, finalization of the authorities, responsibilities, and role of the participating units, and monitoring and control procedures (Mansfield community, 2013). The project planners is required to distribute the duration of the scheduled activities so that they can effectively completed with the given deadline and helps in overcoming the problem of project delay and wrong estimation of the project cost. The approval of the project charter should be taken from the ABC and DEF company so that the complexities and risks associated with the project in developing the acquisition between the two companies for increasing the sale and profitability and can be completed within the required and mentioned time of the project. The consideration should be given on the development of project agreement for acquisition. The agreement should be designed after managing meeting with the companies. It helps in identifying the projected scope for the project. The expectation, desire, and need of the internal and external stakeholder should be given emphasis to improve the management plan of the company.
• Project Execution: The project execution phase focuses on determining the flow of sequence for completing the project for operation. The mapping of the project schedule should be done with the requirement specification plan placed by the owners in the project initiation phase. The key performance indicators should be placed for recognizing the performance of the team members and analysing the expected outcome and quality of the project. The level of satisfaction of the member participants should be taken under-consideration so that they can complete their task within given specific time and helps in managing the resources according to the demand raised by either companies. The parameters should be designed for controlling, tracking, and monitoring of the project process.
• Project Monitoring: The continuous improvement plan should be developed for the organizations so that the project acquisition can be effectively and efficiently completed and achieved the required objective (Ennouri, 2013). The quality standard should be set according to the provision given by the stakeholders in the project initiation. The development of the checklist should be done to analyse the success and failure of the project. The baseline of the project should be determined so that the project plan can be completed within the given specified time. The changes required by the stakeholders due to the changing market need and enhancing the profit graph of the enterprise can be easily included in the project plan to improve its efficiency and final output of the project execution phase. The risks allocation procedure should be followed for distributing the responsibilities among the team member for managing the risks effectively.  The monitoring of the project operation helps in defining the gaps, flaws, and area of improvement in the project management plan (By, 2015). The systematic deployment of the project continuous improvement plan results in the successful development of the project acquisition and bonding between the ABC and DTE Company.
• Project controlling and closing: The controlling procedures helps in completing the project plan according to the given schedule so that the project delay and cost overrunning can be minimized at highest priority. The standard checklist for quality concern should be evaluated so that efficiency of the participant, team members, and project executives can be checked. The risks associated with the project should be monitored throughout the project for minimizing the complexities associated with the project. The development of the risks register helps in maintaining the issues and grievances placed by the employees during the completion of project activities (Browning, 2014). The project closes with the handover of the project for operation. The level of satisfaction should be reviewed periodically so that the success and failure of the project can be effectively evaluated and measured. The feedback system should be imposed for analysing the profitability earned by the company after developing acquisition between them.  

Approaches for Budget Generation

Conclusion

The deployment of the project management policies and framework helps in concluding that the acquisition project of ABC Company can be successfully completed. The focus should be given on analysing the voice of internal and external customers. The scope of the project is to develop an acquisition between the ABC and DEF company to gain profit of the enterprise. The development of the project management framework helps in completing the project successfully. The success criteria of the project depend upon the quality standards which are designed according to the requirement specification plan. The project manager should have good communication skills so that the team members can effectively chare their views, thoughts, ad grievance for the positive working environment. The risks allocation procedure should be followed for distributing the responsibilities among the team member for managing the risks effectively.  The training and development program should be arranged for the employees to adopt new technology and techniques. The scheduling of the project activities and division of role and responsibilities among the team members helps in identifying the gaps, flaws, issues, and risks associated with the project working plan. The ethical code of conduct should be followed by the team members to manage good and ethical behaviour within the working environment of the project.

References

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