ACCA SBL Syllabus H. Innovation, Performance Excellence & Change Management - Defining The Project - Notes 10 / 12
Every project should start with a plan..
A project plan is important because:
Communicates roles and timings
Encourages forward thinking
Provides the measures of success
Identifies resources needed
Contents of a Project Plan
Part of Plan | Contents |
---|---|
Overview | Background, Aims, scope, outputs, stakeholder analysis (mendelow), Risk Analysis (risk map), Intellectual property rights |
Resources | Details of project partners, reporting relationship, decision process |
Detailed Plan | Project deliverables and reports, phasing of work and deadlines |
Evaluation Plan | How the output quality should be evaluated, how success will be measured |
Quality Plan | Quality assurance procedures for each deliverable |
Dissemination Plan | How outcomes will be shared with stakeholders |
Exit & Sustainability Plan | What will happen to knowledge etc at the end. See if any outputs may live on after profit ends |
Initial Documentation
The project initiation document (PID).
This is used to develop and clarify the terms of reference for the project.
It's contents are as follows:
Business Justification - basically the objectives from the business case. It is important to clearly distinguish between project and business objectives and assign responsibilities to each
Scope of the Project - objectives and deliverables. These need to be perfectly clear and well defined
Constraints (cost, time and scope) - as above these are vital to be fully understood at the very outset
Roles and responsibilities - including authorisations - it should be made clear that the project sponsor (see managing the project section) is responsible for making decisions about the project, providing resources, considering and agreeing changes.
The role of the project sponsor should be formally defined and everyone's responsibilities should be clear.
Any failure to adhere to those responsibilities should be addressed.
Risks and resources committed to the project
Business Process Redesign
A specific project can be linked to a specific process - this is then business process redesign
The steps for this would be:
1. Analyse the existing process
2. Design the new process
3. Get the resources for the new process
4. Manage the implementation
For an e-business system this would involve
1. Establish e-business plan
2. Design the system and build new website
3. Integrate the e-business into the current system
4. Test the system and monitor