Administrative Practices and Procedures

Contents
1.1

What Is a Project?.................................................................................................................4

1.2

Use of a Cash Flow Chart in a Project..................................................................................6

Option 1: Internal Server.............................................................................................................6

Option 2: External Server............................................................................................................7
1.3

criteria for assessing the success of a project ......................................................................8

2.1 Work Breakdown Structure(WBS), Node diagram, and Critical Path.....................................10

2.2 Statement of Work..................................................................................................................13
Statement of Work.....................................................................................................................13
Project Background...............................................................................................................13
Objectives & Goals................................................................................................................13
Project Scope.........................................................................................................................13
Feasibility study and selecting the accounting package........................................................14
Requirements gathering techniques.......................................................................................14
Deliverables...........................................................................................................................15
Schedule.................................................................................................................................15
Staffing...................................................................................................................................15
Constraints.............................................................................................................................15
2.3 Amended Node Diagram.........................................................................................................16
3.1 Team issues in a Project...........................................................................................................17
3.2 How to motivate the project team............................................................................................18
3.3 Why collaborative work is important?.....................................................................................20
3.4 Techniques for efficient management of resources.................................................................21
Resource leveling.......................................................................................................................21
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Traditional Resource Management approach............................................................................22
Resource Limit scheduling........................................................................................................22
Resource Breakdown Structure.................................................................................................22
4.1 Options for keeping records of communications.....................................................................23
4.2 production, use of information and successful projects. (P4.2, P4.3).....................................24
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................26

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I would Like to dedicate My

Assignment to the lecturers who help
me to complete it successfully.

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1.1

Write a short essay explaining what a project is; in you answer discuss the key people

involved, limitations, success criteria, and the importance of project selection to businesses in
todays context. Where relevant use example scenarios from the cases given. (P1.1 )

A project could be defined as a set of activities that has a limited budget, limited resources and a
fixed time frame which is focused on achieving an ultimate target. The budget and the time frames of a
project vary depending on the size and the complexity of project. It can be also said that most of the
time the usage of other resources such as human resources and machinery will control the budget and
the time frame. A project is not a new concept to the world. Projects have been conducted and
completed successfully by individuals even thousands of years ago. The constructions of pyramids and
Great Wall of China are few examples that can be given.
The number of members of a project team, their responsibilities will vary based on the project.
When analyzing at the given scenario, the project team members and their responsibilities can be easily
determined. In every project there is a project manager who is responsible for managing the resources
he has.This position is common to all the projects and he will be in charge of the full project and will
be responsible for completing the project with in the given time period and budget. He is also
responsible monitoring the activities of the project and guiding the team members if they are not
working according to the plan. However as mentioned above, the other positions will change based on
the type and the complexity of the project. According to the given scenario it can be assumed that the
team needs analyzers to check the different accounting software to determine the best software that
fulfills the requirements of the company. Once they decide the best product they will inform the
implementers to adjust the system to fit the needs of the organization, prepare the system test data and
to prepare the user manuals. Once said steps are taken the implementers will design and develop a data
migration program.Migrating data properly has many benefits to the organization. This will ensure the
data are not lost while transferring data. Also if the data are lost the users might have to reenter the data
to the system. This will take more time and will also be a repetition of work. Once the new accounting
software is implemented the testers will be given the test data. They will carry out various tests that
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include black box testing and testing whether the software is properly linked with the other software.
Finally the trainers will take the responsibility of training the users to use the software. Once the
trainers complete the training program the users will start working with the new system. In this stage of
the project both testers and trainers will monitor the progress of the users. If the users find any errors
while working with the new system the trainers and testers will make the necessary steps to correct the
errors.
In every project there are 3 constraints that determine the quality of the project. They are,

Scope
Cost
Time

Scope
Quality

For an instance if the scope of

the project increases, the cost of the

Time

Cost

project and the time required will also

increase. If the customer tries to
increase the scope of the project without

giving more time and increasing the budget the quality of the project will go down. The constraints
mentioned above are the most important limitations of the project. However the allocation and the
availability of the resources also play a vital role in a project.
The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and Critical Success Criteria are two areas that could not
be forgotten when talking about a project. Key PerformanceIndicator gives a details description of the
project objective. The key performance indicator should be measurable and should answer the question
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what are the outcomes of the project? For an example, increasing the annual sales profits from
15% can be considered as the key performance indicator. The critical success factors are the ways to
achieve these targets. For an instance, reduce the unit production cost before 30 th August. This can be
considered as success criteria that will help to achieve the objective.
A project can be considered important because of many reasons. Firstly the planning process
helps the project team to identify the possible problems they can face. Identifying the problem will help
the team to either avoid the problem or to mitigate the impact. Secondly they get the chance to
recognize the required resources and also to plan how to use them. Since everything is planned the
project team can make sure they can avoid the unnecessary cost. Since each objective will be given a
separate time limit, the team members will know when to start and complete a task. This basically
means that each and every team members will know their part and the place in the team. The facts
mentioned above are few of the reasons whyfollowing the proper project management guidelines is
essential. This will help the project team to complete the project successfully.

1.2

For project A, using an appropriate cash flow chart, calculate the net present value of the

total life cost over four years and identify the preferred option based on cost.(P1.1, P1.3)
The formal definition for net present value according to investopedia.com is The difference
between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows. NPV is used in
capital budgeting to analyze the profitability of an investment or project. Basically the net present
value or the NPV is the method that is used to calculate the value of a dollar today to the value of that
same

dollar

in

the

future,

taking

inflation

and

returns

into

account.

This is more beneficial because if the discounted amount is not calculated in the present the
investment might look like it is profitable but in the future when the value return is considered it might
be a loss to the company.

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Option 1: Internal Server
Year

Cash Flow

Discount Factor

Present Value()

0
1
2
3
4

4,000
2,200
2,400
2,600
3,000

1
0.90909091
0.83333333
0.76923077
0.66666667

4000
2000
2000
2000
2000
12000

Net Present Value

Option 2: External Server

Year

Cash Flow

Discount Factor

Present Value ()

0
1
2
3
4

500
2,200
3,000
3,900
4,500

1
0.90909091
0.83333333
0.76923077
0.66666667

500
2000
2500
3000
3000
11000

Net Present Value

It is clear that the value of option 1 is greater than the option 2 but the net present values shown
in the tables are costs to the company. Hence it is clear that the company should go for the cheapest
method, which is getting the service of the external server. There are few other reasons why I should
the company should select the second option. Firstly they will have to purchase the computer hardware
to build the server. Then they will have to purchase the licensed software to create the platform to run
the website. Thirdly they will have to recruit new employees who has the expertise knowledge in this
field. Finally since the server will be operating 24x7 the organization will also have to install new
cooling systems in the server room.
These are some of the expenses the company has to bear if they select the internal server.
However all the expenses mentioned above can be avoided by getting the service of an external server.

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1.3

Administrative Practices and Procedures

List and explain very briefly the four main criteria for assessing the success of

the project (P1.2)

There are four main areas a project depends on. Three of them are very vital and they
control the fourth one. All together these four areas determine the success of the project. These main
three areas are identified as the Triple Constraints of a project. They are,

Scope
Cost
Schedule
Quality

In project managements the above sectors are shown in a diagram as follows.

Scope

Quality
Cost

Schedule

When starting a project the customer needs to give his requirements to the project team. In this case it
is clear that the S company need to change their accounts package. It can be assumed that like in
most projects the customer could not explain what exactly he wants. So it is the responsibility of the
project team to find out exact requirements. This can be done by using various fact finding techniques
such as interviews, questionnaires etc. Once the project team finds out what are the main and additional
functions S company requires. They need to set the project boundaries. These project boundaries will
become the targets of the projects. These boundaries and the objectives become the scope of the
project. The project team is required to achieve these objectives staying the within the boundaries.
The next vital area is the budget. Usually along with the project requirements the customer should tell
the project team how much they are willing to spend. Once the project team gets the approved budget
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they should calculate to check whether it is feasible to go ahead with the project. If it is not they should
try to negotiate with the customer to increase the budget or they have to give up the project.
The third area is the schedule. This is where the customer specifies the time period of the project. Again
the project team needs to analyze the complexity of the project and the number of tasks to check
whether the objectives can be achieved within the give time period. The negotiation process will start
again if the given time periods are not adequate.
As shown above these three areas work as the corners of a triangle and are interrelated with each other
and the quality of the project depends on these three factors.
For an example while working on the project the project team might find that the time allocated is not
adequate and to complete the project successfully the team needs more time. If the S company cannot
allocate more time, the team has to bring more resources to work on the project. This will have
increased the costs and will have a direct impact on the budget. If S company has a tight budget and
are not willing to increase it the project team has to reduce the scope. As mentioned above after
accepting the project if the project team goes over budget, takes more time to complete the project or
reduce the project, it will automatically becomes a unsuccessful.
Lets assume S company is not willing to increase the budget, give more time or to reduce the scope.
The project team will be compelled to complete the project according to the first plans. They will try to
hurry up the process by cutting out steps they feel that are not essential. For an example if they do not
carry out the testing process properly they might not find the errors of the new accounting package. For
an instance an accounting package needs to work collaboratively with other systems. If the team does
not do the testing process properly they might miss these types of errors. The increased number of
errors will reduce the quality of the project and the S company might not accept these results. This
proves that the quality of the project is also an area that determines the success of the project and a low
quality of a project can be a reason to a projects failure.

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2.1 For project B initially draw a Work Breakdown Structure(WBS) diagram and then an
Activity on Node diagram, showing all dependencies and the earliest start time, latest finish time,
duration, and float for each task. Highlight the critical path and calculate its duration (P2.1)
Work breakdown structure is a chart that is used to show the task and the sub tasks that has to be
completed in order to successfully complete project. Once it is completed it basically looks like an
organizational chart but instead of showing the names, the designations and their reporting structure of
the employees, the work breakdown structure shows the main tasks and the sub tasks. The work
breakdown structure is an important diagram in a project. It simply helps all the project team members
to understand what are the tasks that take places and even individual teams can understand what their
task boundaries are.
Work break down structures have many advantages. Following are some of the benefits a project
team gets by using this method.
Milestones are easy to define
Project teams can easily understand their responsibilities and boundaries.
Resource allocation can be done easily.
Easy to track the completed work.
Work break down structure makes budgeting easy.
The work break down structure of the given scenario can be shown as below. However it have to be
noted that the work break down structure will change based on the person who is drawing it.

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C

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