One of the finalist team's at the APM Wessex branch's PM Challenge finals night on 25th February gave this presentation as an overview of their project.
3. The Project Brief
The project was to improve the Highcliffe Castle’s visitors
trail.
Objectives:
Information points should be interactive, linking to
information that can be easily updated over time
Different groups visiting the trail should be considered and
their needs met
Address content, design and functionality of information
points
To design information points within a £1000 budget
4. The Project Objectives
To design a visitor trail for Highcliffe
Castle to take visitors from the cliff top
car park to the Castle by 16th December
To present our design proposal to David
Hopkins, the Highcliffe Castle
management on the 7th of January 2014
in a professional presentation.
5. Personal Objectives
To learn how to use project management
tools such as Gantt charts, critical path
analysis and work breakdown structures.
To learn from any mistakes that we make and
understand where we went wrong.
To gain knowledge that we can use on future
projects.
To improve existing professional skills such as
communication and team working.
6. Success Criteria
Was David Hopkins happy with the design proposal
Was our design proposal within the £1000 budget
Did we meet our objectives within the time limit
Did we gain project management skills from the
experience
Did the project meet the assignment brief and the
project brief
Did we complete all deliverables to a high standard
8. Achievements
Met the project brief and produced an design
proposal David Hopkins was happy with.
We completed all tasks within the time frame.
Improved our knowledge of project management.
Delivered professional presentation to an external
client.
Working with a designer to get a professional digital
prototype created
14. Communication
Between team members – Facebook Group,
messaging, telephone
David Hopkins (Highcliffe Castle
management) – email
Karen Thompson (Bournemouth University)
e-mail, face to face
Other external stakeholders (for example
potential suppliers) – e-mail, telephone
15.
16. Stakeholder Management
We identified all the stakeholders to this
project and analysed them
We then created a stakeholder matrix for this
The 3 stakeholders we considered to be most
important were: David Hopkins (Highcliffe
Castle Management), Karen Thompson
(Bournemouth University) and us as a team.
17.
18. Project Budget
Cost measured as our time
Budgeted 3 hours a week per person
Total budgeted time 12 hours a week
Any extra hours put in considered over budget
Top-down approach to cost management – budget set by
management
Highcliffe manager gave us a budget of £1000 to design signs for
him including the material cost. This was met.
Did not spend any of the APM budget.
19. Risk Management
Evaluation of potential risks to success of
the project
Qualitative analysis of the risks (High,
medium, low)
How we planned to monitor and control
these risks
20. Evaluation of Risks
Loss/illness of a team member (low risk) - 4 team
members, loss of member not too significant
Poor time management due to inexperience (high
risk) – Use Gantt chart and project plan to keep to
schedule
Lack of commitment from team members, not making
project priority (medium risk) – planning ahead,
delegating responsibilities
Insufficient resources for design (medium risk) –
correspondence with David Hopkins, Karen Thompson
and Gino Abate and thorough research of suppliers
21. Quality Management
Team review – all team members review and
check activities and deliverables
Project managers role – quality controls
project and gives team members feedback
Consulting with David Hopkins, visiting
Highcliffe Castle, ensuring we are meeting
stakeholders needs
Referring to assignment brief, ensure we are
meeting requirements
22. Progress Reporting
Completed progress reports during project
to ensure we were sticking to schedule
Highlighted any issues that needed
resolving
Determine and plan what activities and
deliverables still need to be completed
25. Overall Success of the Project
Overall success – met all of our objectives
David Hopkins was pleased with design
proposal and gave positive feedback
Quality of work was to a high standard
Success of project management is different
from success of outcome of project – we
could have managed the project better but
we have learnt from this
26. What Was Unsuccessful
Over budget in weeks preceding deadline as we
had to put in additional hours to complete on
time
Tasks could have been delegated better so that
work was completed more efficiently
Time management – began project proposal late,
didn’t stick to Gantt chart schedule
Communication – conflicts could have been
resolved better, messages were not always
received in time
27. Evaluation of Project Planning
We created detailed work and product
breakdown structures helped us to accurately
plan what needed to be done.
This information then helped us create a
Gantt chart which we tried to use to manage
our time.
The Gantt chart could have been more
detailed providing information on who was
responsible for tasks.
28. Evaluation of Deliverables
Design proposal and presentation -
completed to a professional standard
All team members contributed to the
design and deliverables - commitment of
members and good management
Client was happy with the deliverables –
which we consider main factor for success
of the project
29. What Would We Do Differently
Assign clear roles and responsibilities and
stick to them – delegate tasks appropriately
Keep minutes from meetings – ensuring
nothing is missed
Follow the Gantt chart to schedule (create a
more detailed Gantt chart)
Create a communications plan - find a better
channel of communication so messages are
not missed
30. What We Learnt
Learnt how to plan a project effectively –
drawing up work breakdown structures
and Gantt charts
Underlying issues should be confronted to
avoid conflict
Discovered team has an ability to work
well under pressure