Project Management System

Roles of project manager in project management

The present report is based on Dennis Ltd. which is a consulting company specializing in sport and physical activity sector. The company was founded in 1999 and has shown a steady growth over the pat thirteen years. The company trades from office accommodation in a major city in England. The company presently employs 1 General Manager, 5 Lead consultants, 3 Administration staff and 2 Marketing Officers. The present report deals with the main issues that are required to be addressed related to the new project of the company that is for the development of new leisure facility. The report focuses on the initial opening and operational requirements of the project. In the report, all the necessary information required for successful implementation of the project is furnished.

The project manager assumes greater responsibility and accountability in managing the project. He plays a very important role in project management and he is the kingpin around whom the whole organization revolves. The project manager should possess various skills such as interpersonal skills, leadership skills, entrepreneurial skills, etc. He should be experienced in establishing plans, goals and scope of the project (Barber and Warn, 2005).

Project Life cycle

The project life cycle of the project comprises of various stages. The project life cycle is divided into various stages and every project is required to follow the five stages of the life cycle.

Nitiation: At this stage, a project manager describes all the objectives and aims of the project. The project is initiated by identifying its purpose. The time, resources and cost constraints are also defined at this stage. The project manager of Dennis Ltd. at this stage will indentify the goal of the project and will also prepare the project scope document (5 Basic Phases of Project Management, 2013).

Planning: At this stage, the project manager plans the schedule for the team members and prepares the project management plan. It is based on the collection of accurate information and size of the project team members. The project manager of Dennis Ltd. at this stage will plan various activities such as planning for sports hall, swimming pool, etc.

Execution: At this stage, the project plans are executed. This is the stage where team members' starts working and resources are put into action. The requirements of the project are actually programmed at this stage.

Monitoring and controlling: This is the stage where project is constantly monitored if it going as per the plans or not. The project manager at this stage will continuously monitor all the activities of the project and if they are not going as per plans corrective measures will be taken.

Closure: This is the last stage of project life-cycle. At this stage, al the tasks are attained by the team members. The project is entirely completed and information is passed onto people who need it. At this stage project manager of Dennis ltd. will test all the rooms and facilities that are included in the project.

Project planning

Project planning is considered to be one of the most important parts of project as it is on the bases of project planning whole project is required to be completed. It comprises of different stages through which new leisure facility will be developed and identified as compared to the initial opening and operational requirements (Kloppenborg, 2011). The resources that are required for this project can be understood with the help of below mentioned stages:

Work Breakdown structure (WBS)

Work breakdown structure is defined as the model which identifies how the project work is organized in a hierarchical and well-structured manner. Work breakdown structure categorizes the different parts of the project. Various parts are differentiated on the basis of tasks, time, responsibility, etc. (Maddalena, 2012). As far as Dennis Ltd. is concerned, WBS will provide road map to the company and will in turn help the project management team in accomplishing its goals. In the WBS of developing a new leisure facility for Dennis Ltd., the project will be divided into various sub-parts such as developing a team, infrastructure development, equipment Building, etc. (Nishadha, 2011)

Cost breakdown structure

After work breakdown structure is completed, the nest stage is cost breakdown structure. The cost breakdown structure assigns costs to various parts of the project and allocates each part with the cost of the activities. Company will have to make appropriate plans about in which area they will have high expenses such as in material labor, overheads, fixed expenses, etc. this will help the company in knowing that in which area they are required to invest more and how they should control costs Eve, 2007).

Network diagram

Network diagram is an important tool of project management that helps in indentifying the time required to complete each activity. Dennis Ltd. can construct a network diagram for its project which can help the company in determining the time that will be required in order to complete the whole project. Furthermore, it will also help in identifying the earliest start, latest start, earliest finish and latest finish of every activity. Timing constraints should be considered while developing a network diagram. For an instance, if there is any delay in an activity of the project whole project will be delayed (Longman and Mullins, 2004).

Gantt chart

Gantt chart is a type of bar diagram in which schedules of the projects are presented and also comprises of summary of essential activities of the project. Gantt chart can help the Dennis Ltd. in allocating its resources in an appropriate manner and in scheduling the timing of its activities accurately. It will provide rough overview about the various activities of the project such as infrastructure developments, designing, equip building, etc. (Kutsch, 2008).

Milestones

A project milestone is the definable and recognizable points in a project timeline. It identifies that stage of the project which is required to be done on specific time. Milestones of the project of Dennis Ltd. specify whether the project is on the right track or not. In the development of new leisure facility, the milestone of Dennis Ltd. is the successful completion of each activity of the project (Sommerville, 2011).

Planning of resources

Planning of resources is very important as it helps in recognizing the resources required by the organization for completing each phase or stage of the project. All the resources of the project such as material, equipments, labor, etc. are required to be planned in a well-structured manner. All the resources of the new project of Dennis Ltd. should be given greater importance as they may affect the whole project. The activities related to the fittings and connections should be completed on time and as if these activities are delayed than other developmental activities of sports hall, swimming pool, etc. will be delayed (Hejducki, 2004).

Risk Management

Risk management helps in mitigating the risk at various stages of the project life cycle. In projects, all the stakeholders such as owner, sponsors, designers and project managers face risky situations many a times (Kloppenborg, 2011). There are various controllable and uncontrollable risks arise while developing a project. It is the responsibility of management to identify the risks and properly assess them, monitor and take corrective action to reduce their impact. While developing new leisure facility, the company may also face various risk and thus should properly adopt the risk management model (Velagapudi, 2011). The controllable risk such as control on cost can be done by reducing the expenditure, while uncontrollable risk should be properly mitigated by the project manager by making the contingency and emergency fund for the project.

Conclusion

By studying this report it can be concluded that Dennis Ltd. should use appropriate tools and techniques in order to know whether its project will be completed within the time frame. The company should also prepare network diagrams and work breakdown structure in order to know the timing of each task and activity associated with the project. In addition to this, the company should also prepare risk management plan and should be ready to phase the uncertainties.

• Bryde,J. D., 2003. Modelling project management performance. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management.
• Eve, A., 2007. Development of project management systems. Industrial and Commercial Training.
• Hanisch, B., and et.al., 2009. Knowledge management in project environments. Journal of Knowledge Management.
• Hejducki, Z., 2004. Sequencing problems in methods of organising construction processes, Engineering. Construction and Architectural Management.
• Kloppenborg, T., 2011. Contemporary Project Management. 2nd ed. Cengage Learning.

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