For those who have just started an APM PMQ course here are a couple of exam questions for you to try.
1) Describe five responsibilities of the project users during the project lifecycle?
2) List and describe the differences between projects and operations?
3) Describe the five benefits of a project lifecycle?
4) List and describe five factors that define the project environment (or context)?
Remember each answer must be made of five paragraphs of two to three sentences each.
If you post your answers below I will give you feedback.
1.Describe five responsibilities of the project users during the project lifecycle.
Define what is required.
That is to clearly state the intention of the project with regard to forming acceptance criteria. For example – a Handling Facility for nuclear waste would require the plant (product) to safely transfer a set number of boxes of waste per day whilst ensuring radiological and environmental safety. This would assist the Sponsor and Project Manager in forming the requirements section of the business case during the concept stage.
Accept the Products (Advise the sponsor)
The users would develop along with the Sponsor a set of acceptance criteria, which would define the end point of the project (Up to Handover). These criteria would be at a level understood by the key project team members and would form part of the contract documentation. In more complex projects these would be contained in one or more specifications detailing specific parts of the overall deliverable. E.g. a specification for a crane as part of a handling plant.
Operate the product.
Once acceptance and commissioning/start-up it is the responsibility of the users to use/operate the product in order to obtain the benefit described in the business case. For Example a new biscuit line in a bakery. The line would have to be run for a period in order for a benefits review to be carried out to understand whether or not the investment had delivered a profit.
Liaise with the Project Manager (PM) over changes
User requirements may change during the project lifecycle. It is the responsibility of the users to communicate these to the project manager the nature and reasons for them. This will enable the PM and his team to Log, evaluate and make a recommendation to the sponsor regarding the change. This may be a relatively minor change such as a change to a colour scheme or a fundamental change to the product such as increased throughput. The users need to understand where in the project lifecycle the change is occurring as this will have a significant bearing on the potential impact.
Accept the Authority of the Sponsor
It is with the Sponsor that authority ultimately lies for the success or failure of the project. Users must accept that the Sponsor is responsible for the big picture and as such has the final say. For example the users may be desirous of a change, however the Sponsor may reject this due to cost overruns or significant delays to the project.
4) List and describe five factors that define the project enviroment (or context)?
List:
1. Political context
2. Economical context
3. Sociological context
4. Technological context
5. Legal context
Description:
1. Political context: This is the context in which the different stakeholders have a vested interest and will try to influence the strategic direction of the project.
2. Economical context: Means the funding/ investment conditions surrounding the project. eg availibility of funding is critical for a project to gain approval to go ahead at the environment agency.
3. Sociological context: The human dimension and in particular the make up of the society will be key factors in deciding on the model to manage the stakeholders. The average age and different social classes of a certain area will dictate how the communication is to be delivered.
4. Technological context: The specification requirements will be designed for a specific purpose. The technical aspects have to be understood.
5. Legal context: The duties and obligations of the client organisation will influence how they prioritise their projects. Beyond this legislation is subject to change and this can have a significant impact on the life cycle of a project. Achange of legislation is a significant risk to projects. eg The interpretation of the Water Framework Directive in the UK and the timing of the guidance had such an impact that a number of projects had to be reviewed and a whole dedicated programme had to be put together to address the issue.
1) Describe five responsibilities of the project users during the project lifecycle?
Project users are critical at almost every stage of the project process. Users are important in identifying the need for the project at the conception stage. They may have ideas for products that can help them perform their business functions and so add value to the business.
The project’s users pay an important role in formulating the requirements for the project. It is necessary to consult with the users to determine what the functions a product must or should perform in order to enable them to realise business benefit from the products.
After the product is created the users play a vital role in testing that the product meets the requirements that they helped formulate in the earlier part of the project. The users need to highlight any area where the products fail to meet with the requirements or any errors or omissions in the requirement that may put the realisation of benefits from the products at risk. Any changes to requirements will need to be managed with a project change process that needs approval from the project sponsor.
Users pay an important role in accepting the products and formally signifying their acceptance as part of the project control process. They must give their acceptance in order for the commissioning of the products to take place and for them to go into general usage as part of established business procedure.
Finally once the products of the project have been delivered, accepted and commissioned the users have a responsibility to utilise the products in order to realise the project benefits for the project sponsor. The users need to make use of the products of the project in the way that they were conceived in order to realise the benefits that the project was designed to deliver.
List and describe the differences between projects and operations?
Projects are transient. Projects tend to have a fixed planned timescale with defined dates for start, milestones such as acceptance, delivery, commissioning and completion. Operations continue indefinitely without a planned end for the business operation.
Projects are generally unique. A project will be conceived to produce a defined product or change to a business operation and it is usual that the products of a project have not been produced before within the organisation. Operations will more likely invoke the repeating of a set of defined and established processes to achieve a business outcome.
Projects tend to have personnel assigned to them for delimited periods to perform defined pieces of work for the project. Business operations will tend to have personnel with skills specialist to the operation permanently assigned to the operation.
Projects tend to have more informal reporting lines between the project manager and the project team. This is due to the transient nature of the project. Operations tend to have more formal fixed reporting lines with functional managers heading up teams of people with specialist skills needed to perform the business operation.
An example of a project might be the modification of a custard cream biscuit line to enable it to also produce Garibaldi biscuits. The project will have a defined timescale to make the change to the biscuit line, however the operations of the biscuit line will continue indefinitely. The Garibaldi project may require work from personnel working in the biscuit operations team as well as specialist contact individuals in disciplines such as dried fruit technology. The organisation may not have tried to produce Garibaldi biscuits before so there is some uniqueness to the project. Personnel in the biscuit operations team may be required to help with the Garibaldi project and the Garibaldi project manager will need to negotiate with the biscuit operations supervisor in order to get time from his personnel. There will be a defined end date for the Garibaldi project after which Garibaldi biscuits can be produced on the biscuit line, however biscuit production operations will continue indefinitely.