Task 1

1. Key stages in the project life cycle

The stages in the project life cycle are the following:

Initiation: For The initiating stage, begin with the project obtained approval from the customer to start planning. The first step is to assign the project manager who guides the project through the rest of the initiation process, you identify the problem the project is supposed to solve and gather information about the project, objectives, requirements, deliverables, and more.

Planning: At this stage, the project manager needs to figure out who has a stake in the outcome of the project, stakeholders include the customer, project sponsor, departments involved with the project, and people who work on project tasks. Once you have an initial project definition, it is time to prepare the project charter, identify all the project stakeholders with their roles and responsibilities. Pellerin and Perrier (2019) have discussed project planning and its importance. The project manager begins by identifying the work that must do to make the project easy to manage, the work is further broken down into smaller tasks

Executing: In the project stage, the project manager brings all resources on board, brief everyone, and explain the rules of how it’s going to run the project, putting all the activities of the plan into action. Making sure all are executed as planned.

Monitoring: In this stage, the project manager ensures that all the activities of the project are done inconsistent with the project plan. In other words, means checking what is going on in the project. Whether the project has slid off the track, if there is, the project manager takes immediate action taken to rectify it. In the opinion of Nguyen et al., (2018), monitoring inhibits the use of effectuation, while project innovativeness is associated with increased use of effectuation

Closure: For the final stage of a project and it is also important, this stage is where the client officially accepts the project is completed, the deliverables are delivered to the sponsor or client to their satisfaction.

As a project manager, I think that the planning stage is the most important. If the plan is map out properly, follows all the five process factors, the activities of the project will be able to perform in an effective manner, like what goes into a project plan, building and fine-tuning a project schedule, and measuring performance. Problem-solving is another important skill. Another important attribute is the project manager’s interpersonal skills as projects may use people from different groups, departments, and different contractors. It is his job to get everyone to work as a team to get the project done and the goals of the project will meet. On the other hand, improper planning can deviate from the objectives of the project leading to its failure.

2. Project structure and recommendation on project structure

Functional structure: Functional structure is the structure where there is a manager in every department like sales, marketing, production, administration, supply-chain, and the subordinates work under a respective manager (Topchiy and Tokarskiy, 2018). This is to identify and document project roles and responsibilities, who reports to whom, and the skills needed to do the project work.

Project organizational structure: In this structure, the project manager begins with a staffing plan to describe how you staff the project. A responsibility matrix, spells out who can make or approve decisions. The project organization chart shows the hierarchy and reporting structure for people involved with the project, so that the team members are dedicated to the project and if need to escalate requests or decisions to the project manager.

Matrix organizational structure: This is a blend structure with the project and functional structure. A project manager is responsible for project-related decisions and the functional manager is for the other decisions.

Recommendation

The functional structure can be recommended as the best way of guiding the two offices of Safe & Secure Virtual Protection Pte Ltd. With the functional structure, each department can perform the project activities effectively. On the other hand, in the project structure, the project manager will not be able to handle all the activities effectively. Moreover, if matrix structure is selected then the structure can create competition between project and functional manager.

3. Risk responses in a project

The risk responses are the following:

Avoid: Elimination of the threat to protect the project

Mitigate: Activities to reduce the probability of threats to the project.

Transfer: Shift the impact of the threat to the third parties for compensation.

Accept: Keep notice of the risk but taking no action against the risk.

Selection of risk response

Mitigation can be said to be the best risk response from the above options. Risk mitigation is the strategy that can be taken from the beginning of the project for each type of risk. For example, if it is evident that one soppier will be a failure to supply sufficient resources, then from the beginning, the other suppliers can be selected. Marupinget al., (2019), have demonstrated that the risk mitigation process made an IT project stronger. This will reduce the financial loss as mitigation strategies can be followed before starting the project.

4. Project control measures

There are different types of project control measures like Work breakdown structure, Gantt Chart, critical path, Agile methodology, and some others. In a project work breakdown structure, a Gantt chart and Agile methodology can be used so that the project outcomes can be achieved in an effective manner. Kiviläet al., (2017), have demonstrated the importance of project control measures. Work breakdown structure will help each project team member to understand the division of project work. Gantt chart with the task and timeline will help the team members complete each task timely. Agile methodology has the option of changing activities during the middle of the project and it will give more flexibility than the waterfall method and another method.

5. Interconnectivitybetween strategic management and project management

Strategy design is the former step of project activity execution. Therefore, if the strategies are designed in an effective way, then the project manager will also be result-oriented. Strategies in a project have to be funded and supported from the beginning phase of the project. On the other way, the resource procurement, utilization, and funding will be as per the strategies in a project. Therefore, strategies are interconnected with project management. On the contrary, if from the beginning, strategies in a project phase are not effective, the outcome in the project will not be potential.

6. Critical path network

i)Critical path for project management

The critical path in a project is related to the timeline of a project (Liu and Hu, 2021). The project often seems very complex and hence, it becomes very critical to the project manager and the other members. Therefore, some reliable ways are necessary to keep the timeline of the project. The following Gantt chart can alleviate the risks of a delayed critical path.

ii)AON project network

iii)Identification of critical path

In the above diagram, it has been shown how the time duration for each activity has been reduced in the project phase from project start to project finish. This will reduce the risk of the timely completion of the project.

iv) Development of Gantt chart

Work Breakdown Structure in the project of the faculty

Table 1: Table showing work breakdown structure

Figure 1: figure showing the Gantt chart

Task 2

Introduction

Project management is a complex task and a project manager is required to have different skills and competencies to manage a project. This report is tailored with a 1 day staff retreat project by the Singaporean company, ‘Fraser and Neave, Limited ‘. The report will discuss, project objectives, milestone, work breakdown structure, budget and the risk register.

Objectives of the project

The goal of the project is to restructure of Fraser and Neave, Limited in the perspective of improving operational efficiency for more production of food and beverage. The operational efficiency will increase production of the company and thus, the profitability of the company will increase. However, the following are the objectives of the project:

• To arrange successfully the one day retreat project
• To conduct the one day project within the budget of $50,000
• To complete the project successfully within the time span of the project
• To meet the customers, needs through making the project successful

Project scope statement

Shirazi et al., (2017), have viewed that t is also extremely necessary to manage the scope and all the procurements needed to complete any project.The purpose of making project scope is to make aware the stakeholders of a project the goals and objectives of the project. The project deliverables are the following:

Table 2: Table showing project deliverables

The above table shows the main project deliverables in the project of Fraser and Neave, Limited. The manager of the company will make planning at the beginning phase of the project so that all the project activities can be accomplished in a systematic way. The total funding of the project will be limited to $50,000. The entire funding of the project will be done through a bank loan from the Developmental Bank of Singapore. There will be some IT-related activities in the project and the IT-related activities will be performed and developed on 29.04.21 for restructuring of the company. Employee training is necessary for enhancing the skills and competencies of the employees in the field of operation performance. The planning and activities on capital restructuring will be accomplished on o10.04.2021.

Milestone of the project

LeepHunderfund, et al., 2017), have viewed that a milestone can be said to be a project document. However, the milestone in the project of Fraser and Neave, Limited is the following:

Table 3: Milestone of the project

Source: Self-created

Project priorities

Project priorities are not making or designing the budget of the project in an effective way but much more than budget-making. Prioritization of the project activities can produce better outcomes in the project. Lindsonet al., (2017), have opined that project priority is a measure of engaging stakeholders. The project prioritization will be done in Fraser and Neave, Limited with the pioneers of the operations department of the company and the CEO and other Board members of the company with consideration of the operational restructuring of the company so that in the future, it can produce more food and beverage product for Singaporean and other markets. In the project, lots of operational difficulties will be mitigated. The priorities in  the project will generate the following benefits:

• The operational department of the company will implement the highest value project and make investments to derive the highest value from the project.
• The prioritization of the project will ensure that the project scopes and objectives are clearly defined with the allotment of the responsibilities to the project member for the success of the project.

Apart from the above, the CEO of the company will consider the utilization of human resources and technical skills. The employees of the company will be trained in an effective manner so that they can acquire skills in operational and IT activities and then they apply their skills in their practical operational field in their companies for better production. If the company has not have all these resources, then it will make an infrastructure to support the staff of the company. Li et al., (2017), have demonstrated the infrastructure of financing in a project. With the above requirements, the CEO of the company will ensure that the company has enough financial resources to support the project and if the company does not have enough financial capital, then alternative measures are to be ensured so as to prevent the project from being held up after it has started.

Work breakdown structure

Work breakdown structure is a structure that helps the project manager and the other team members understanding and accomplishing all the tasks in time (Maulanaand Latief, 2020). The main purpose of the work breakdown structure of Fraser and Neave, Limited is to reduce complications of activities and make collection tasks to be performed.

This is important for the project as the manager will be able to oversee the tasks effectively rather than seeing the work as complex activities. The WBS tasks are measurable and hence, the project manager will be able to allocate the budget for each task and in this way, the resources of the project will be utilized in an efficient manner.

Finally, it can be said that the work breakdown structure will be beneficial for the entire project team as they will be able to understand each task and it will help them to accomplish the tasks within a certain limit. In this way, their skills can be utilized in an optimized manner. The following is the work breakdown structure of the restructuring project of Fraser and Neave Limited. The work breakdown structure will be maintained for the project prior to the start of the one-day staff retreat program.

Table 2: Table 2 showing work break down structure

Source: Self-created

Figure 3: Gantt chart of the project

Source: Self-created

Cost Estimation (Budget)

In the opinion of (Habibiet al., (2018), Cost estimation or budget-making in a project is necessary. Without a planned budget, a project can fail and can be left incomplete. Valuable costing in a project can give all the information for decision-making in a project. The project manager of Fraser and Neave, Limited will make the budget in a prudent way so that in the future there will be no uncertainty in the project. Further, the project budget will also help the manager and the other project members utilize the financial and other resources and thus, there will be less wastage of project resources. However, the following is the project cost estimation for the entire one day project:

Table 3: Table showing the budget of the restructuring project of Fraser and Neave, Limited

Source: Self-created

Risks management in the project

According to Cronkite al., (2019), Risk is common to any type of project. Therefore, the project manager is required to follow a risk management process for the entire project. Risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing, and mitigating risks in a project to achieve the goals of the project without wasting the resources in the project. The following is the risk register in which the negative risks and their mitigation measures are mentioned.

Table 4: Table showing the risks register

Source: Self-created

The above-mentioned risks are required to be considered by the project manager for the success of the project. Of the above risks, the budget shortfall risk is to be considered with great importance by the project manager because if the budget falls short during the phase of the project there will be a huge loss in the project. Therefore, the project manager from the very beginning of the project should design the budget in such a way that the estimation of financial capital will be adequate. Zsidisin and Henke(2019), have discussed supply-chain risk in a project. In order to mitigate the supply-chain risk, the project manager is required to nurture the sustainable supplier so as to ensure the constant flow of the materials for the reconstruction of the project at a low cost.

Skills and competencies required by the project manager in the project

Project management is a complex process and hence project manager is required to have some skills and competencies to make the project of Fraser and Neave, Limited. Firstly, the project manager should have skills of leadership to conduct the entire project (Novoet al.,2017). Leadership skill is necessary to guide and lead the team members in the project.

Further, the leadership skill of the project manager will resolve the conflicts among the team. The second requirement is the communication skill of the project manager in the project (Aldamenet al.,2021). The communication skill of the project manager will help share valuable information throughout the project and thus, the staff of the company can be aware of their roles and responsibilities.

The third is risk management knowledge (Vujovićet al., 2010). Risk is vital in a project to be considered and hence, the project manager should have knowledge on the identification and mitigation of risks. The knowledge on risk identification will help the project manager save the project from risks.

The final required skill can be said to be the power of critical thinking (Brookfieldet al., 2019). Project management is not a task of having a single task, rather it is combined with multi-tasks and hence, the project manager should think critically about what should be done and how should be done.