Workbook
introduction

This workbook addresses the issues of Managing Projects. Should you wish to extend your study to other Super Series workbooks covering related or different subject areas, you will find a comprehensive list at the back of this book.

This workbook relates to the learning outcomes of Unit M3.22 Managing projects from the ILM Level 3 Award, Certificate and Diploma in First Line Management.

This workbook relates to the following Unit of the Management Standards which are used in S/NVQs in Management, as well as a range of other S/NVQs:

C5. Planning change responsibility.

In our daily lives we need to decide how to spend our money and set priorities. Do we buy the latest home entertainment system or is it better to take our family on holiday? It would be good if we could do both but there is usually not enough money to go around.

Businesses and non-profit-making organizations have the same problem. If a business buys a machine which is the most efficient on the market and will give it a competitive advantage, this will add to profit, which will benefit owners and shareholders. But perhaps the purchase means deferring a pay rise for employees and will lead to unrest. In spending money the business must make choices and weigh the costs and benefits of each option.

Some choices are more difficult than others. A hospital may have enough money available to buy a foetal monitor which will help save the lives of, say, a dozen babies a year; or a kidney dialysis machine which will save 300 older people a year having to travel fifty miles to the next available dialysis centre. Which would you choose?

We need to have criteria against which we can make decisions like these, and ways to measure the potential advantages and disadvantages of using resources available to us. And, because money is limited, you, as a first line manager, need the skills to be able to ensure that you have a good chance of receiving a fair share of the funds available. To say: ‘We need £20,000 for a new piece of equipment’ is not enough. You need to justify why you should receive the money and not someone in another department.

In this workbook we will look at ways of evaluating projects in financial, and other, terms and how to prepare a financial case.We will then go on to examine how you can manage a project successfully, to ensure that the decision that was made on the basis of your financial case, is implemented successfully. Most managers manage projects regularly, many of them relatively small but significant, in enabling an organization to achieve its goals. Too few of them come in time, on budget and do what they are intended to. This is often down to poor project planning. In the final session we will look at the process of managing a project and you will see how important the preliminary stages – the stages covered in sessions A, B and C – are to achieving success with your project.

4.1   Objectives

When you have completed this workbook you will be better able to:

   understand the ways in which changes and ideas develop into projects;

   use techniques to appraise investment;

   prepare a financial case;

   manage a project successfully.

If you are compiling an S/NVQ portfolio, you might like to develop some of the Activities in this workbook as the basis of possible evidence of your competence. They are all marked with the ‘Portfolio of evidence’ icon shown on the left. Particular Activities you may want to look at in advance are:

   Activity 6: which asks you to perform SWOT and PESTLE analyses;

   Activities 22 and 25: where you will explore your organization's relevant financial policies and procedures, in preparation for Activity 26;

   Activity 26: where you look at appraising equipment that is due for replacement;

   Activity 29: where you undertake a payback and return on investment exercise.