Managing a project

1. +
Identifying and justifying a
management project

2. +
Learning outcomes
By the end of this section you should be able to:
 1.1 Determine a management area for investigation that has an
implication for a work-related area
 1.2 Identify the aim, scope and objective of the project 1.3
Justify the aim and objective of the project
 1.3 Justify the aim and objective of the project

3. +
What are you going to investigate

4. +

5. +
Some Important Questions
How suitable is the project idea?
 How practical is the project idea?
 How risky is the project idea?

6. + How practical is the project idea?
As well as testing the suitability of the project idea, you
need to consider how practical it would be to
investigate and implement. To do this you need to
consider three areas:
How feasible is the project idea? Can the subject
area actually be investigated and implemented if
required?
How big is the project idea? Do you have time to
undertake the investigation? What are the
timescales involved? What are the time implications
for implementation?
How much will the project idea cost? This can be
difficult at an early stage, but can you quantify the
anticipated costs?

7. + How risky is the project idea?
There may be a number of potential risks associated with
your project idea. It’s helpful to break the project investigation
and implementation process down into a number of key
stages and to then consider the following:
What are the potential failures?
What would be the effect of the failures?
How serious are these failures? Could they be corrected
easily? Would they result in the project being cancelled?
What might cause these failures?
How likely are they to occur?
What could you do to reduce the risk of the failure
occurring?

8. + Identifying and justifying the aim, scope
and objectives of the project
An important aspect of this is to develop
three key dimensions:
the aim of the project
the scope of the project
the objectives of the project.

9. +
The aim of the project
An example would be as follows:
The overall aim of the project is to investigate how
a blended learning approach could be used to
implement health and safety training within the
organisation.

10. + The scope of the project
Globerson (2001) defines scope as:
The work that must be done in order to deliver a
product, with its specified features and functions.
It should include all the work required, since
otherwise not all the deliverables will be
executed. Moreover, it should include only the
work required, since otherwise items that were
not planned and budgeted for will be executed
and violate the project’s objectives.

11. + The objectives of the project
Ask yourself who you’re writing the proposal for.
Think about what the readers will want to know.
Make the objectives as specific as you can and write
each one in one sentence if possible.

12. + A project proposal or business case

13. +
Conducting Research & Analysing
Data
Learning outcomes
 By the end of this section you should be able to:
 2.1 Identify sources of data and information for the project
 2.2 Analyse the data and information for options or alternatives
that meet the project aim
 2.3 Determine an option or alternative that meets the project
aim.

14. + The research and investigation process

15. +
A word about wording
During this and subsequent sections you’ll
see the words data or information:
Data generally means raw numbers,
written facts, figures or people’s opinions
and comments.
Information generally means data that has
been processed in some way so that it
becomes useful.

16. + What are the sources of the data and information?
primary data
secondary data
quantitative data
 qualitative data.

17. + Collecting the data and information
Having identified the sources of data and
information, you can now look at the
processes of actually collecting it. You’re
going to explore three key approaches and
briefly review some alternatives. The three
key approaches are:
desk research
Questionnaires
 interviews.

18. +

19. + Analysing the data and information
Once you’ve collected the data and
information for your project it’s time to
analyse the data and make some sense of
it. There are a number of techniques to do
this but you’ll normally focus on two key
areas:
analysing the quantitative data you have
collected
analysing the qualitative data you have
collected.

20. +
Illustrating quantitative data
Three key tools that would be useful for your
management project are:
pie charts
bar graphs (or charts)
line diagrams.
Each one has its own merits which you’ll
look at next.

21. + Pie charts

22. + Bar graphs (or charts)

23. + Line diagrams

24. + Identifying options

25. + Considering options

26. + Considering alternatives

27. + Making conclusions and
recommendations
Learning outcomes
By the end of this section you should be able to:
3.1 Evaluate the research to make conclusions
3.2 Recommend a course of action to meet the
project aim
3.3 Assess the impact of the project
recommendations.

28. + Drawing conclusions from the
research and
investigation
draw conclusions based on the research
and investigation findings
propose recommendations for action that
meet the aim of the project
assess what impact the recommendations
may have.

29. +
Developing conclusions
summarise the findings of your research
highlight any gaps or limitations in the
research carried out
identify key themes that may have
surfaced
discuss options and alternatives
revisit the project aim and objectives set
out in the project business case or
proposal.

30. + Summarise the findings of your
research
What methods were used to collect the
primary data?
What were the results of the analysis on
the data collected? What methods were
used to collect the secondary data?
What did that research tell me?

31. + Highlight any gaps or limitations in the research
carried out
How many people did I interview?
How many questionnaires did I send out?
How many responses to the questionnaires did I receive?
How many people were involved in any focus groups?
Were the people I consulted representative of the
organisation as a whole?
What other organisations did I investigate or consult with?
What did I not consider in my research?
If I had more time, a bigger budget or more resources what
else would I have done?

32. + Identify key themes that may have surfaced
looking for links between your findings
looking for examples where primary
research findings
confirm and support problems, issues or
opportunities
looking for examples where secondary
research supports your primary research
findings.

33. + Discuss options and alternatives
During the investigation and analysis stages it may be
that some options and alternatives for meeting the
project aim surfaced. You should be clear about the
following:
What options and alternatives surfaced?
Why did these options and alternatives surface?
Were these unexpected?
Why were they not in the original business case or
proposal?

34. + Recommending a course of action
carry out the research and investigation to see
if the proposal will support the project aim and
then report back with your findings, conclusions
and recommendations
carry out the research and investigation as
above, but to also carry out the implementation,
as outlined in the business case or proposal,
and then present the results and impact at an
agreed later stage.

35. + Getting things done
Recommendations are suggestions to someone
to do something. The recommendations should
flow logically from the conclusions of the
research and they should be carefully drafted to
ensure that the right person or body takes the
right action about the right thing.
Nick Moore (2006)

36. + Using ‘magic words’ to assess impact of
recommendations
A helpful tool at this point is to consider some ‘magic
words’ and relate your project recommendations to
those magic words. This will help you build up a case
for implementing the recommendations. Here are
some examples of magic words:
improve increase save
reduce gain.

37. + Using a balanced scorecard technique to assess
impact

38. +
Presenting and reviewing results
Learning outcomes
By the end of this section you should be
able to:
4.1 Determine the medium to be used to
show the results of the project
4.2 Produce the results of the project
4.3 Discuss the impact of the project on
the work related area

39. +
Project
Sponsor
Project
Stakeholders
Project Team
Other
Stakeholders
Who are the results for?

40. +
A verbal presentation
A detailed written report
A written summary
A written case study
A Four Channel Approach

41. +

42. + Developing a framework for evaluating impact