Reflect and review
Now that you have completed your work on Managing Projects, let us review our workbook objectives.
You should be better able to:
understand the ways in which changes and ideas develop into projects.
What changes have been experienced in your work area? What successes does your workteam have in implementing new projects?
It is important to understand the aims of your organization when making financial cases. What does your organization look for in viable projects?
In assessing viability, organizations need to consider experience, available time and resources, and ideas for projects should be generated with such matters in mind. Can you think of three or four projects which would improve the situation of your workteam and organization? (Perhaps SWOT and PESTLE techniques will help you.) Make a note of these.
The second workbook objective was to:
use techniques to appraise investment.
Organizations use different methods to appraise projects and we looked at payback period and return on investment in this workbook.
As a first line manager, you may be involved in making a case for an investment or in collecting information for an investment appraisal. Think about your present role and make a note of anything else you can do to assist in effective appraisal.
Cost-benefit analysis techniques may also be relevant to your organization. What are the areas that need to be included in such an appraisal?
The third workbook objective was to:
prepare a financial case.
It is important to present a clear and straightforward case in the best way. Perhaps you have a better idea now of what needs to be included in a good financial case.
List the key requirements below so that you can use the best approach in future.
The final workbook objective was to:
manage a project successfully.
Having undertaken the kind of thorough financial analysis for the proposed project that this workbook encourages, the feasibility of the project succeeding is far higher. This makes it more likely that you will bring the project in on time and on budget.
How successful is your organization in bringing in projects on time and on budget?
How well do project teams review projects to learn from the experience so that they plan and manage them better?
Use this plan to further develop for yourself a course of action you want to take. Make a note in the left-hand column of the issues or problems you want to tackle, and then decide what you intend to do and make a note in column 2.
The resources you need might include time, materials, information or money. You may need to negotiate for some of them, but they could be something easily acquired, like half an hour of somebody's time, or a chapter of a book. Put whatever you need in column 3. No plan means anything without a timescale, so put a realistic target completion date in column 4.
Finally, describe the outcome you want to achieve as a result of this plan, whether it is for your own benefit or advancement, or a more efficient way of doing things.
| Extension 1 | Book | Exploring Corporate Strategy |
| Authors | Kevan Scholes and Gerry Johnson | |
| Edition | Sixth, 2001 | |
| Publisher | FT Prentice Hall | |
| Extension 2 | Book | Essential Managers 12: Managing Change |
| Author | Robert Heller | |
| Edition | 1998 | |
| Publisher | Dorling Kindersley | |
| Extension 3 | Book | Frank Wood's Business Accounting 2 |
| Authors | Frank Wood, Alan Sangster (Editor) | |
| Edition | 9th edition, 2002 | |
| Publisher | FT Prentice Hall |
These extensions can be taken up via your ILM Centre. They will either have them or will arrange that you have access to them. However, it may be more convenient to check out the materials with your personnel or training people at work – they may well give you access. There are other good reasons for approaching your own people: for example, they will become aware of your interest and you can involve them in your development.
1 Organizations select ideas for projects if they have appropriate EXPERIENCE, physical and financial RESOURCES and if they have sufficient TIME to complete the project on schedule.
Self-assessment I
on pages 18–19
2 Kitchen Caterers'
strength is good reputation for service;
weakness is cost;
opportunity is the contract for renewal;
threat is the competition.
3 The stages of the life cycle are: introduction, growth, maturity, decline.
4 It is important to allow for problems to avoid additional costs later and to make contingency plans to avoid major disruption.
5 There is no question of choosing to undertake an unavoidable project, while there are a number of criteria which should be applied before undertaking a discretionary project.
Self-assessment 2
on pages 43–44
1 Payback occurs in the third year of use as shown below.
| Annually (£) |
Total (£) |
||
| Year 0 | Purchase | 2,000 | (2,000) |
| Year 1 | Savings | 600 | (1,400) |
| Year 2 | Savings | 800 | (600) |
| Year 3 | Savings | 800 | 200 |
2 The return on investment is:
Depreciation is £10,000/5 = £2,000, which is the average annual investment.
The average profit less depreciation is £3,000 − £2,000 = £1,000.
3 Some costs and benefits are easily measured financially. Others are less tangible and measured through the use of COST-BENEFIT analysis. One way of putting a price on such intangibles is by using SHADOW prices.
4 The items can be categorized as follows:
a cost of equipment – tangible cost
b productivity savings – intangible benefit
c avoidance of costs – tangible benefit
d efficiency loss – intangible cost.
Self-assessment 3 on page 54
1 The key stages in getting a project up and running are:
develop ideas on changes;
think of a project;
have preliminary discussions;
do financial and cost-benefit appraisals;
complete submission;
present to senior management;
get approval;
implement.
2 It is important to gather full information to ensure that an appropriate PROJECT is selected to overcome a problem. Choices are narrowed by performing FINANCIAL analysis and COST-BENEFIT analysis.
3 Using the appropriate forms of submission is more likely to mean that your request for finance will be SUCCESSFUL. Familiarity helps senior MANAGEMENT to examine the PROJECT effectively.
4 ‘A and D’ is the correct answer. An organization needs to know how much it will have to commit financially and knowing how a project will benefit the organization aids overall management appraisal. Previous successes of the organization may have built up retained profits, say, but have no relevance to the future. Although selecting projects is important, management are concerned with relevant cases put before them, not all the projects that have been rejected at an early stage.
Self-assessment 4 on page 70
1 The four stages in project planning are:
Assess the FEASIBILITY of the project
PLAN the project
IMPLEMENT the project
REVIEW the outcomes of the project
2 When assessing the feasibility of a project, the three questions you should ask are:
What is being proposed?
Can it be done?
Should it be done?
3 In risk assessing a project you ask what COULD GO WRONG and also WHAT CHANCE there is that it WILL go wrong
4 The three tools you could use to help you plan a project are:
logic diagram
critical path (or network) diagram
Gantt chart
5 Review points in the course of a project are called MILESTONES
6 The four stages in Shewhart's PDCA cycle are:
PLAN
DO
CHECK
ACTION
Task B can only be started once Task A is completed, and Task D can only be started once Task C is completed. Task C can be done more or less concurrently with Task B.
Activity 33 on page 61
The ‘actual’ bars show that Task A took longer than expected, making the start of tasks B and C late. Tasks B and C appear to have been done in the allotted time, but Task D has not yet been started. It should have started at the beginning of week 3, but it will not be started until the end of that week.
Answer 1 Because they are in close contact with employees, customers, suppliers and competitors.
Answer 2 Organizational Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Answer 3 Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors.
Answer 4 Introduction, growth, maturity, decline.
Answer 5 Discretionary costs.
Answer 6 Capital costs are a project's initial outlay; revenue costs are incurred over time.
Answer 7 Payback period.
Answer 8 Return on investment.
Answer 9 Cash based and profit based.
Answer 10 The maximum payback period or minimum return on investment that an organization will accept.
Answer 11 Identify and quantify social costs and benefits.
Answer 12 By using shadow prices.
Answer 13 The money needed, why it is needed, how it benefits the organization and how the investment is repaid.
Answer 14 The four stages in project management are:
Assess the feasibility of the project
Plan the project
Implement the project
Review the outcomes of the project
Answer 15 A risk assessment should identify what could go wrong during the course of the project and the chance of it actually going wrong.
Answer 16 Milestones provide opportunities during the course of the project to ask:
How well the project is progressing compared to the plans agreed.
How well the project team are working and what extra resources might be needed, or what unexpected barriers are being met.
Whether any assumptions that were made in planning the project have proven to be false.
Completion of this certificate by an authorized person shows that you have worked through all the parts of this workbook and satisfactorily completed the assessments. The certificate provides a record of what you have done that may be used for exemptions or as evidence of prior learning against other nationally certificated qualifications.
superseries
FIFTH EDITION
Workbooks in the series:
Achieving Objectives Through Time Management |
978-0-08-046415-2 |
Building the Team |
978-0-08-046412-1 |
Coaching and Training your Work Team |
978-0-08-046418-3 |
Communicating One-to-One at Work |
978-0-08-046438-1 |
Developing Yourself and Others |
978-0-08-046414-5 |
Effective Meetings for Managers |
978-0-08-046439-8 |
Giving Briefings and Making Presentations in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046436-7 |
Influencing Others at Work |
978-0-08-046435-0 |
Introduction to Leadership |
978-0-08-046411-4 |
Managing Conflict in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046416-9 |
Managing Creativity and Innovation in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046441-1 |
Managing Customer Service |
978-0-08-046419-0 |
Managing Health and Safety at Work |
978-0-08-046426-8 |
Managing Performance |
978-0-08-046429-9 |
Managing Projects |
978-0-08-046425-1 |
Managing Stress in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046417-6 |
Managing the Effective Use of Equipment |
978-0-08-046432-9 |
Managing the Efficient Use of Materials |
978-0-08-046431-2 |
Managing the Employment Relationship |
978-0-08-046443-5 |
Marketing for Managers |
978-0-08-046974-4 |
Motivating to Perform in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046413-8 |
Obtaining Information for Effective Management |
978-0-08-046434-3 |
Organizing and Delegating |
978-0-08-046422-0 |
Planning Change in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046444-2 |
Planning to Work Efficiently |
978-0-08-046421-3 |
Providing Quality to Customers |
978-0-08-046420-6 |
Recruiting, Selecting and Inducting New Staff in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046442-8 |
Solving Problems and Making Decisions |
978-0-08-046423-7 |
Understanding Change in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046424-4 |
Understanding Culture and Ethics in Organizations |
978-0-08-046428-2 |
Understanding Organizations in their Context |
978-0-08-046427-5 |
Understanding the Communication Process in the Workplace |
978-0-08-046433-6 |
Understanding Workplace Information Systems |
978-0-08-046440-4 |
Working with Costs and Budgets |
978-0-08-046430-5 |
Writing for Business |
978-0-08-046437-4 |
For prices and availability please telephone our order helpline |
+44 (0) 1865 474010 |
or email |