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.
List & describe 5 factors that define the project environment
Factors that define the project environment (often referred to as PESTLE) include:
•Political
•Economic
•Sociological
•Technical
•Legal
Political: The political aspects of the environment can range from external (UK governmental politics) to internal (the interactions between stakeholders within the organisation). Political aspects can also vary between being static and dynamic during the project timescales, and can either be known constraints or aspects of stakeholder management.
Economic: The economic aspects relate to each of the funding for the project, the implementation and the forecast benefits of the project outputs. Exchange rate variations may vary the cost of implementation if a supplier costs in a different currency, or the market for a product developed is (at least in part) overseas. Interest rate variations can change the business case by altering the return on investment, or opportunity cost of investing in the project vs investing elsewhere.
Sociological: The cultural attitudes, practices and morale of stakeholders are an contextual factor. (This is taking the broad definition of anyone affected by the project being a stakeholder). For example, the perception of stakeholders indirectly affected by the project can lead to negative publicity which could in turn put political pressure on the project. (Newspaper furore about those cities/regions not involved with HS2, but which could resultantly lose out on investment is a case in point).
Technical: The technical environment can encompass both the currently availability technology, and technology that may or may not be in the pipeline. For example, delivering a solution within a project that relies on a known and loved technology may not be supportable due to external product obsolescence. Alternatively, a project that delivers a product that is not compatible with emerging technology risks the benefits of bringing that product into use (if for example the users shun the product).
Legal: From statutes to contract law, the legal environment is relevant to project – both in the implementation and the project’s products. Considerations would include the threshold of work beyond which CDM regulations come in to force, and knowledge of where responsibilities lie and may competently be carried out. Typically many of the aspects of the legal environment apply as much to the organisation as a whole as to the project, and if advice is not available internally to the organisation then an external supplier of legal advice may be required.
Thanks for undertaking this Paul, I’m finding it rather useful.
Cheers,
Steve
The user/s are responsible for defining the product to be created by the project. They will also have ideas about how the end product of the project will work or be used.
The acceptance of the end product by the user is critical. The handover of the product cannot be completed if it is not considered fit for purpose by the user.
The user/s must learn to use and use the product to realise the full benefit of it to the and the organisation for which it was created. Also to justify the time, effort and cost involved in creating it.
The user must accept the parameters of the project, as specified by the project sponsor. Who will set these with the aim of getting maximum benefit and quality, while balancing the risk, time and cost.
The user should liaise with the project manager to ensure the requirements of the product are being met. also to ensure the usability of the end product.
2/. list and describe the differences between projects and operations
1/.projects seek to introduce change/operations maintain stability for efficiency
2/.projects have experts in key areas to manage risk/ operations are procedural to allow for continuity of oversight.
3/.projects produce a product once/ operations produce a product repeatedly.
4/projects have a scope of works/operations work off repetition??
5/.projects have a project life cycle/ operations have a product life cycle
projects aim to bring about change to an organisation often with the aim of improving productivity and/or efficiency. Where as operations aim to provide efficiency through repetition of a process does not change such as production lines or through the implementation of systems such as standard invoicing.
Operations by their nature are repetitive and procedural and therefore need continuous oversight, supervision and maintenance which does not change.
A project on the other hand requires various specialists to give input at strategic points of a project life cycle to help minimise risk i.e. using an engineer to do the structural calculations for a building.
Operations are the use of a process for the achievement of the same product i.e. a production line or for efficiency i.e. the running of an office using systems and procedures to which everyone is expected to conform.
whereas a project will undertake a procedure once with the aim of producing a specific end product, such as a house.
Projects are defined by a scope of works which lay out the parameters of the project being taken and the desired end product.
With operations once the proto type has been developed the process is simply repeated over and over with the end product always known and the same.
Operations will produce a product which will go through a life cycle from build, operation and disposal this is known as the product life cycle. This will be repeated with the same aim and product over and over.
A project will have a set number of steps over as set period of time known as the project life cycle. With the aim of producing a singular one off product.
1.Describe five responsibilities of the project users during the project lifecycle?
The project users have very important responsibilities in the project lifecycle and the successful delivery of a project. They are the people who will be producing the benefits and running the operation of the products. Five responsibilities of the users include:
One of their key roles is to help define what is required from the products. They will help determine what they need in order to make the operation more successful. They will be using the products so it is important they are involved not only to help the sponsor realise what it is the organisation needs but also because their early involvement will ease in the transitioning when the products are put to use.
The users will be the ones who accept the products. They are the ones that know what is needed and therefore they will accept them. The products will have to meet acceptance criteria and pass test and commissioning stages in order for the users to validate that the products are ready for use.
They will operate the products and migrate them into business as usual activities. In order for the benefits to be fully realised the users need to be fully involved with defining the product so that the deliverables meet the actual business needs and not just a presumption of need from head office staff.
They have to be in regular communication with the Project Manager with regards to changes. It is often the case that the need evolves, especially over a long project duration and if it does the products may need to adapt to suit. Any such change will need to be fully communicated to the project manager.
The users need to accept the authority of the sponsor. Sometimes it can seem that the objectives of the sponsor and the users are not completely aligned but that may be because the users are focusing on tactical objectives and operational risks whereas the sponsor may be looking at the wider, strategic objectives of the organisation.