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Organisation structure relating to project success

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Organisation structure relating to project success An organisation can have a major impact on project management. Is it difficult to get traction on your projects? Are there numerous layers of authority that you have to navigate to get approvals for basic tasks? Does your budget get cut because of competition for limited funding? Do your projects lose out in favour of day-to-day routine operations? It’s likely that you are feeling the effects of the organisational structure within which you work. Understanding your working environment better will help you to rise above organisational issues and smooth the way to successful project management. How each distinct organisational style affects project management? Functional Organisational Structure . These firms are organiSed into functional divisions based on primary functions such as engineering, human resources, finance, IT, planning and policy. Each different functional division operates independently and isolated groups ...
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What is contained in a progress status report, who is it of use to and why?

The Progress Status Report: The project status report’s objectives: Improve communications across organisation Simplify communication process Keep stakeholders informed Deliver key messages to intended target audience Improve organisational support for your projects or your team It consists of general information about the project, milestone review, details of the report, issues and risk analysis, the project summary, as well as the project metrics. General Project Info : What is the project name? Who is the project manager? What are the numbers of resources? All this information is essential. Don’t assume your stakeholder is familiar with all this information. It’s also especially useful for when you’re doing historic research for future projects. General Status Info: You’re going to want to stamp the report with the data that will distinguish it from the reams of reports that will be streaming into the project paperwork. So, here you wa...
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The Key Objective of Project Risk Management

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Project Risk Management The purpose of risk management is to identify potential problems before they occur so that risk-handling activities may be planned and invoked as needed across the life of the product or project to mitigate adverse impacts on achieving objectives. Effective risk management includes early and aggressive risk identification through the collaboration and involvement of relevant stakeholders. Strong leadership across all relevant stakeholders is needed to establish an environment for the free and open disclosure and discussion of risk. The common risk management objectives: Develop a common understanding of risk across multiple functions and business units so we can manage risk cost-effectively on an enterprise-wide basis. Achieve a better understanding of risk for competitive advantage. Build safeguards against earnings-related surprises. Build and improve capabilities to respond effectively to low probability, critical, cat...
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How can a project manager ensure that estimates are accurate and how bad estimates can lead to good projects failing

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Estimating is a critical part of project planning, involving a quantitative estimate of project costs, resources or duration. Typically, a project estimate shows the client: Tasks  – What’s going to be done, Resources  – By who, Rate  – At what billing rate, in what currency, with how much tax, Duration  – For how many hours or days, and + any mark-up and 3 rd  party costs (such as hosting, photography, travel or subsistence). Accurate Estimates 1. Designate a Lead Estimator 2. Encourage Bottom-Up Estimating 3. Gather Detailed Requirements 4. Determine Pessimistic, Best Guess, and Optimistic Estimates 5. Encourage Communication among Project Members 6. Include Finance and Legal Staff The project manager can ensure that his estimates are correct by beginning with estimating the time needed for each task rather than for the project as a whole. The level of detail they need to go into depends on the circumstances. For example, you may on...
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