PROJECT MANAGEMENT

By: Mirza Arif Baig

A1KW-109801
 PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Assignment

a)What is a project:

 communicate vividly; "He projected his feelings"

 stick out: extend out or project in space; "His sharp nose jutted out"; "A single rock sticks out
from the cliff"
 transfer (ideas or principles) from one domain into another
 project on a screen; "The images are projected onto the screen"
 cause to be heard; "His voice projects well"
 draw a projection of
 plan: make or work out a plan for; devise; "They contrived to murder their boss"; "design a
new sales strategy"; "plan an attack"
 present for consideration, examination, criticism, etc.; "He proposed a new plan for dealing
with terrorism"; "She proposed a new theory of relativity"
 visualize: imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind; "I can't see him on horseback!"; "I can see
what will happen"; "I can see a risk in this strategy"
 put or send forth; "She threw the flashlight beam into the corner"; "The setting sun threw
long shadows"; "cast a spell"; "cast a warm light"
 throw, send, or cast forward; "project a missile"
 undertaking: any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted; "he prepared for great
undertakings"
 regard as objective

Project management:

is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful
completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is often closely related to and sometimes
conflated with program management.

A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by
date, but can be by funding or deliverables, undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives,
usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands
in contrast to business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent or semi-
permanent functional work to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these
two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct
technical skills and the adoption of separate management.

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives
while honoring the preconceived project constraints. Typical constraints are scope, time, and
budget. The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize the allocation and
integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.

b) Evolution of project Management

Project management has been practiced since early civilization. Until 1900 civil engineering
projects were generally managed by creative architects and engineers themselves, among those
for example Vitruvius (1st century BC), Christopher Wren (1632–1723) , Thomas Telford (1757-
1834) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859) [7] It was in the 1950s that organizations
started to systematically apply project management tools and techniques to complex projects.

Henry Gantt (1861-1919), the father of planning and control techniques.

As a discipline, Project Management developed from several fields of application including

construction, engineering, and defense activity.[9] Two forefathers of project management are
Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques[10], who is famous for his use of
the Gantt chart as a project management tool; and Henri Fayol for his creation of the 5
management functions which form the foundation of the body of knowledge associated with
project and program management.[11] Both Gantt and Fayol were students of Frederick Winslow
Taylor's theories of scientific management. His work is the forerunner to modern project
management tools including work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource allocation.

The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern Project Management era. Project management
was formally recognized as a distinct discipline arising from the management discipline.[1] In the
United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt
Charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two mathematical project-scheduling
models were developed. The "Critical Path Method" (CPM) was developed as a joint venture
between DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance
projects. And the "Program Evaluation and Review Technique" or PERT, was developed by
Booz-Allen & Hamilton as part of the United States Navy's (in conjunction with the Lockheed
Corporation) Polaris missile submarine program;[12] These mathematical techniques quickly
spread into many private enterprises.

Q2.a) Functional Organizations and process organization:

Challenges
• Global competition
• Organizational renewal (to a “Learning organization”: Everyone is allowed to solve problems,
flat structure etc.)
• Strategic advantage (fast delivering, information technology)
• Employee relationships (flatter organization, no “lifetime employment”)
• Diversity (changing workforce)
• Ethical and Social responsibility
Organizations are:
1. Social entities
2. Goal directed
3. Designed as deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems
4. Linked to the external environment
Closed system - doesn’t depend on environment (environment for granted)
Open system - interacts with environment to survive
System - set of interacting elements that acquire inputs from the environment, transforms
them, and discharges outputs to the external environment
Chaos theory – we live in a complex world full of randomness and uncertainty.
Butterfly aspect – aspect of Chaos theory, small events can have giant effects.

Subsystems of an organization
• Boundary subsystems – work directly with environment
• Production subsystems – do primary transformation
• Maintenance subsystems – smooth operation and upkeep of the organization
• Adapting subsystems – organizational change and innovations
• Management subsystems – directing/coordinating other subsystems
Organizational dimensions
1. Structural dimensions – provide labels to describe the internal characteristics of an organization
(create basis for measuring and comparing organizations)
• Formalization - amount of written documentary
• Specialization - division of labor, degree tasks are subdivided
• Standardization
• Hierarchy of authority – related to the span of control (number of employees reporting to a
supervisor)
• Complexity
¾ Vertical – number of levels in the hierarchy
¾ Horizontal – number of departments/job titles existing horizontal
¾ Spatial – number of geographically locations
• Centralization – refer to the hierarchy level that has authority to make decisions
• Professionalism – level of formal education and training employees
• Personnel ratios – deployment of people to various functions and departments
2. Contextual dimensions – characterize the whole organization
• Size
• Organizational technology
• Environment
• Goals and strategy
• Culture
Paradigm – shared mind-set that represent a fundamental way of thinking, perceiving and
Understanding the world

Structure:

Recent organizational design are a significant shift toward horizontal rather than vertical management.
Characteristics horizontal corporation:
1. Structure is created around workflows or processes rather than departmental functions
2. The vertical hierarchy is flattened
3. Management tasks are delegated to the lowest level Æ decentralization
4. Customers drive the horizontal corporation
Self-directed teams building blocks of the new horizontal organization. Consist of 5 to 30 workers
with different skills who rotate jobs and produce an entire product or service and who take over
managerial duties. Include following elements:
1. Team is given access to resources
2. The team includes a range of employees skills
3. The team is empowered with decision-making authority
Advantages:
• improvements speed en efficiency
• reduced barriers among departments
• better morale
• administrative overhead is reduced
Disadvantages:
• shifting difficult process
reengineering: cross-functional initiative involving the radical redesign of business to bring about
simultaneous changes in structure, culture and information technology.
Dynamic Network Design: Other trend, choice companies make to limit themselves to only a few
activities they do extremely well. Free market style. Outsourcing other functions.
+: less administrative overhead, products quickly to the market without much start-up costs, develop
new products without high investments, flexible, rapid response
-: little hands on control, difficult to define organizations, weakened employee loyalty.

goals and strategy:

The primary-sibility of top management is to determine an organization’s goals, strategy and design,
therein adapting the organization to a changing environment.
Role of organizational theory: Organization design reflects the goals and strategies are implemented.
Goals:
• Mission, official goals (reason for existence, organization’s vision)
• operative goals (goals the organization actually pursues, describe specific measurable outcomes)
• Overall performance (profitability)
• Resources
• Market
• Employee development
• Innovation
• Productivity
• Purposes of goals:
• legitimacy (mission)
• employee direction and operation (operative)
• decision guidelines
• criteria of performance
Strategy: plan for interacting with the compatitive environment to achieve organizational goals
Goals define where the organization wants to go, strategy how it will get there.
Porter’s framework of 3 competitive strategies:
1. low-cost leadership (stability rather than risk)
2. differentiation (distinguishing)
3. focus (specific regional market or buyer group)
• Ideas to built internal organizational characteristics:
• Strategic orientation
• Close to the customer
• Fast response
• A clear business focus and goals
• Top management
• Leadership vision
• A bias toward action
• Promoting a foundation of core values
• Organization design
• Simple form and lean staff
• Decentralization to increase entrepreneurship
• A balance between financial and nonfinancial numbers of performance
• Corporate culture
• Climate of trust
• Encouraging productivity through people (everyone must participate)
• Long-time view.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Project driven organizations:

The principles of incentive contracting are long standing. In recent years, however, there has been
a greater emphasis on the need to use incentives whenever possible. Consequently, there is a
growing requirement for a more thorough understanding of the principles and techniques
involved. In this paper, the key features of motivation and incentive contracting are described,
and three real contracts are outlined and compared with particular attention to the incentive
mechanisms used. The writers found that incentive arrangements must align the needs of the
client and contractor, correctly allocate risk, and allow an appropriate level of client involvement

Abstract:

Purpose – This paper aims to extend knowledge about virtual teams and their advantages and
disadvantages in a global business environment.

Design/methodology/approach – Based on a literature review and reported findings from

interviews with experts and practitioners in the field, the paper has identified and discussed the
advantages and problems associated with creating and managing virtual teams.

Findings – In today's competitive global economy, organizations capable of rapidly creating

virtual teams of talented people can respond quickly to changing business environments.
Capabilities of this type offer organizations a form of competitive advantage.

Originality/value – By identifying the advantages and problems associated with virtual teams,
organizations will be better able to successfully establish and manage such teams.

Q.3) RESPONSIBILITIES OF PROJECT MANAGER

Planning

The planning function includes defining the project objective and developing a plan to
accomplish the objective. The project manager should work with the project sponsor in order to
define the specific objective of the project. Working with the sponsor is beneficial in many ways.
For example, the sponsor is the person responsible for the resultant project and thus has a stake
in the success of the project. Therefore, the sponsor should be very helpful in defining the project
objective. In addition, "sponsors often can help secure interdepartmental cooperation and
influence contractors and suppliers" (Davies, p. 83). This can be helpful throughout the life of
the project.

The project manager must also develop a plan to accomplish the objective. The project manager
should include project team members in this phase. Including members of the project team in the
plan development phase "ensures a more comprehensive plan than he or she could develop alone
(and) gains the commitment of the team to achieve the plan" (Gido & Clements, p. 292).

Organizing

The organizing function involves identifying and securing necessary resources, determining
tasks that must be completed, assigning the tasks, delegating authority, and motivating team
members to work together on the project. Resources include both personnel and financing. "Most
projects do not receive unlimited resource allotments, (so) the project manager must allocate the
available resources"

The project manager must then determine what tasks must be completed. Once this has been
done, the tasks should be assigned to project team members or subcontractors. The project
manager may also delegate authority to certain team members to oversee task completion via
supervision of those assigned the tasks. Finally, the project manager must motivate members of
the project team to work together in order to complete the goal. Conflicts may arise and often
will occur when individuals working together come from departments with different goals. "The
project manager needs to watch for anyone who
loses sight of project goals in favor of individual goals" (Davies, p. 84). A project manager who
is aware of the potential conflicts and is observant will be better able to manage those conflicts
when they arise.

Controlling

The controlling function involves tracking progress and comparing it with planned progress.
Progress reports should be used to measure performance, as well as identify areas for
improvement. "If actual progress falls behind planned progress or unexpected events occur, the
project manager...(implements) ...appropriate corrective action and how to replan those parts of
the project" (Gido & Clements, p. 293). The project manager must be able to solve problems and
get the project back on track.

Q.4(a)
DIFF B/W COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS
A competency is the capacity to draw upon and apply a set of related knowledge, skills, and
abilities to successfully perform a work role, function, or task. Competencies often serve as the
basis for skill standards that specify the level of knowledge, skills, and abilities required for
success in the workplace. Skill standards in turn form the basis for measurement criteria to assess
competency attainment. A competency model differs from a set of skill standards in that skill
standards define levels of skills (or competencies) required in a given job or role, while
competency models typically do not.
Q.4(b)
COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS OF PROJECT MANAGER

(a) Strong leadership ability

Leadership is getting things done through others; the project manager achieves the results
through project team. He needs to inspire the project team members, needs to create a vision of
the result. Project leadership requires a participative and consultive leadership style, in which the
project manager provides guidance and coaching to the project team. It also requires involvement
and empowerment of the project team. He should motivate the team to achieve its objective.

(b) Ability to develop people

The effective project manager has a commitment to the training and development of people
working on the project. The project manager should establish an environment where people can
learn from the tasks they perform and situations they experience. He should provide
opportunities for learning and development by encouraging the individuals. A final way in which
a project manager can develop people is by having them attend formal training sessions.

(c) Excellent communication skills

Project managers must be good communicators. It’s important for the project manager to provide
timely feedback to the team and customer. The project manager needs to communicate regularly
with the project team, as well as with any subcontractor, the customer and their own company’s
upper management. Effective and frequent communication is critical for keeping the project
moving, identifying potential problems, soliciting suggestions to improve project performance,
keeping customer satisfaction and avoiding surprises.

(d) Ability to handle stress

Project managers need to handle the stress that can arise from work situations. Stress is likely to
be high when some critical problems arise. The project managers can improve their ability to
handle stress by keeping physically fit through regular exercise and good nutrition, he can also
organize stress relief activities playing outdoor games etc.

(e) Good interpersonal skills

Good interpersonal depends on how good his oral and written communication. The project
manager needs to establish clear expectations of the members of the project team so that
everyone knows the importance their roles in the project. A project manager needs good
interpersonal skills to try to influence the thinking and action of others, to deal with disagreement
or divisiveness among the team members.

(f) Problem-solving skills

A project manager should encourage project team to identify problems early and solve them.
Team members should be asked to give suggestions to solve the problem. The project manager
should then use analytical skills to evaluate the information and develop the optimal solution.

Developing skills needed to be a project manager:

§ Gain experience.
§ Seek out feed back from others.
§ Conduct a self-evaluation, and learn from your mistakes.
§ Interview project managers who have the skills you want to develop in yourself.
§ Participate in training programs, volunteer yourself in other work.

Q.5) PROJECT MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE

the Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals
or objectives. Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a series of stages
during its life. There is first an Initiation or Birth phase, in which the outputs and critical success
factors are defined, followed by a Planning phase, characterized by breaking down the project
into smaller parts/tasks, an Execution phase, in which the project plan is executed, and lastly a
Closure or Exit phase, that marks the completion of the project. Project activities must be
grouped into phases because by doing so, the project manager and the core team can efficiently
plan and organize resources for each activity, and also objectively measure achievement of goals
and justify their decisions to move ahead, correct, or terminate. It is of great importance to
organize project phases into industry-specific project cycles. Why? Not only because each
industry sector involves specific requirements, tasks, and procedures when it comes to projects,
but also because different industry sectors have different needs for life cycle management
methodology. And paying close attention to such details is the difference between doing things
well and excelling as project managers.

Diverse project management tools and methodologies prevail in the different project cycle
phases. Let’s take a closer look at what’s important in each one of these stages:

1) Initiation
In this first stage, the scope of the project is defined along with the approach to be taken to
deliver the desired outputs. The project manager is appointed and in turn, he selects the team
members based on their skills and experience. The most common tools or methodologies used in
the initiation stage are Project Charter, Business Plan, Project Framework (or Overview),
Business Case Justification, and Milestones Reviews.

2) Planning
The second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the
end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for the
successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders
identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or
methodologies used in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.

3) Execution and controlling

The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and
controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem
specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a design resulting in
a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is measured by prototypes,
testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups across the organization become
more deeply involved in planning for the final testing, production, and support. The most
common tools or methodologies used in the execution phase are an update of Risk Analysis and
Score Cards, in addition to Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.

4) Closure
In this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to its proper
completion. The closure phase is characterized by a written formal project review report
containing the following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client,
Weighted Critical Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client with
the final delivered product), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing project
resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. No special tool or
methodology is needed during the closure phase.

Q-6(B)
1. Undefined or poorly defined project requirements
Project managers should collaborate directly with key project stakeholders to define specific
detailed project requirements and deliverables. Defining specific project requirements is
necessary to maintain alignment of project tasks to desired business outputs, as well as to ensure
that projects have clear and specific project objectives established.

While this step may seem obvious, many companies will skip this stage and go right to solutions
to jump start a project. Business and/or IT executives assume the requirements (such as controls,
dashboards, data, dependencies, functionality, integration, metrics, outputs, and workflow) are
met without performing any confirming analysis.

These projects tend to fail and the companies usually encounter over spending, project restarts,
rework, and/or unmet expectations.

2. Lack of project planning

Once the requirements are known, then conducting thorough, upfront project scope planning is
an essential next step to help project managers and stakeholders accurately and clearly define
project scope.

It is important for people to understand that there is more than one way to achieve the
requirements and that scope and cost vary by approach. Project scope management is therefore
necessary to develop reasonable project estimates, enhance the management of customer and
stakeholder expectations, and mitigate project risks such as cost overruns and schedule delays.
Project managers should establish and standardize a scope management process to develop
concise project scope statements and credible budget and schedule estimates.

3. Lack of or poorly developed budget forecast

Thorough research and preparation is necessary to develop a reasonable budget estimate. Many
companies will skip this step or just do a very rudimentary estimate due to the amount of work
needed to complete the task.

Some companies that do not maintain internal archives of project costs turn to external
consultancies to acquire external spending/budget information on companies that have completed
similar projects in a similar market.

Using the estimated budget, project managers should collaborate with stakeholders to help
further refine the project scope and final deliverables. Project managers should use their initial
budget to base actual spending plans as well as to proactively track spending and respond
quickly to potential issues to prevent shortfalls in the budget.

4. Lack of stakeholder involvement

Project managers should ensure that primary project stakeholders are involved with the project
from the beginning and throughout the entire project. This is crucial to ensure that visions are
properly communicated, defined, and verified.

It is very common for project efforts to be delegated to staff that do not have sufficient
knowledge or understanding of the desired effort. As a result, projects are defined incorrectly and
the projects delivered do not meet the expectations of key stakeholders.

5. Lack of executive support

An IT project can be highly political and may end up involving an excessive number of
unnecessary or incorrect participants. IT executives should seek ongoing senior management
endorsement and enforcement of the planning process to keep the effort on track and to minimize
pushback from line of business (LOB) managers.

Support from senior management and staff involvement are both needed to drive and keep the
effort focused and moving. Ownership of the project must be shared to satisfy the demands of
user management. IT executives must convey this message to senior management to retain
involvement and participation.

6. Frequent or large changes to project scope

Scope changes can significantly impact the cost, schedule, risks and quality of the entire effort.
Project managers should watch out for early and frequent changes to the project scope.

While scope is defined early in the planning and estimation phases, there are valid reasons for
change. For example, a stakeholder may acquire additional insight into a problem during the
course of the project or external market conditions and/or government regulations can drive
requests that extend beyond the initial project scope. However, changes to project scope can also
occur as a result of developing a poor initial scope document.
Project managers must ensure that adequate time is spent on defining and refining the work
effort directly with key stakeholders.

7. Lack of change management process

Project changes will occur. However, uncontrolled changes and insufficient change management
processes will increase the probability of project failure. A formal and structured change
management process is necessary to ensure effects of any changed requirements are properly
analyzed, prioritized, and balanced according to the project’s budget, schedule, and scope.

Project managers should consistently and publicly take a phased approach to projects, so that
users understand that not all changes must be completed for the current release. This will help
acceptance of trading off specific desired changes for faster availability of greater functionality.
This will also help reduce the impact of change onto the project, and allow for cost and time
containment.

8. Failure to establish appropriate client/user expectations

Disputes often occur as a result of mismatched expectations. Missed project targets will cause
delays, rework, and additional project spending. Setting user expectations is necessary to
establish a baseline of what and what not to expect from the final deliverable.

Project managers should work with key stakeholders in establishing and prioritizing project
requirements as well as reviewing budgets and schedules. Additionally, all people involved in
the project effort should have periodic joint sessions, to ensure the same communications on
project expectations are received by everyone.

This process helps keep users involved and abreast of the project’s status, as well as minimizing
the potential for misunderstanding of project expectations between stakeholders.

9. Unrealistic deadlines
Stakeholders want their projects completed now. In some harsh environments, they may question
IT’s commitment and effort. IT executives and project managers must work with stakeholders to
help them understand what is possible with the level of incumbent IT resources.
Project managers should collaborate with key stakeholders in defining reasonable project
schedules and deadlines to ensure that business conditions and requirements are met and better
manage expectation levels.

Project managers will need to ensure that project cost, scope, and time are optimally balanced to
achieve the desired deliverables and the desired time. Effective planning and monitoring are
necessary to help develop a strong start for the project. However, project managers must remain
aware and anticipate change as re-planning is necessary throughout the project.

10. Insufficient resources

Required resources are often underestimated and scheduled inaccurately. Companies often
encounter problems with resource allocation, as many companies to do not spend sufficient time
on resource scheduling and proper management.

In fact, it is very common for companies to overestimate the on-boarding of staff to a project,
which immediately causes the project to be late and in trouble, impairing IT’s image with LOB
managers and executives. In addition, resources are often utilized ineffectively, especially when
individuals are required to support multiple projects concurrently. Insufficient resource supply
will cause delays and impact overlapping projects.

Project managers should plan according to the established project schedule estimates and work
with concurrent project schedules to help ensure that resources are properly scheduled.
Q.7(a)
Project Overview Statement—Activity Definition
Purpose: The Project Overview Statement (POS) is a short document that establishes the purpose
of the project, and explains what business value it hopes to provide to the organization. The
objective of this activity is to secure management approval and to provide the Project Manager
with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. The POS becomes a
source of reference for the project team.
Participants: The Project Manager prepares this document. The intended audience is
management, stakeholders, sponsor and the project team.
Inputs: Approved Project Request form[1]
Process:
1. State the Problem or opportunity that the project addresses.
2. Establish the Project Goal. The goal gives purpose and direction to the project.
3. Clearly state the project objectives that are concise, verifiable, feasible, and measurable.
4. List the criteria that will be considered while measuring the success of a project.
5. Determine the effort that will be required for the project. This estimate should be a more fine-
tuned estimate compared to the one made in the Project Request Form.
6. Estimate the total cost of the project i.e. effort, operating expenses, and any capital costs like
licensing costs.
7. Determine the Class of the project.
8. List any assumptions made, and any known constraints or obstacles imposed by the
environment or management. Identify any project risks that might be present.
9. Attach documentation, if necessary to support any of the above.
10. This document needs to be approved by the relevant stakeholders.
11. Maintain versions and details of what changes are made in what version.
Outputs:
Project Overview Statement
Project Overview Statement—Guidelines
1. Project Name and Date
2. Revision History and versions: Date, what changes were made and who made the
amendments. Version is incremented for each significant change or edit. The signed off version
becomes v1.0. Changes after this acceptance are incremented.
3. Project Sponsor/Customer
4. Project Manager
5. Problem/Opportunity: State the problem that the project will resolve.
5. Goal: What does the project hope to accomplish?
6. Objectives: A concrete statement describing what the project is trying to achieve. The
objective should be written at a low level, so that it can be evaluated at the conclusion of a
project to see whether it was achieved or not. A well-worded objective will be specific,
measurable, attainable/achievable, realistic and time-bound. e.g. there should be no more than 2
queries in a day regarding the use of function X after the project is executed.
1. Success Criteria: Success criteria should be identified. To the extent possible, these factors
should be quantifiable and measurable. These success criteria should be determined based upon
the following considerations: a. Metrics and User Surveys, b. Financial Savings, c.
Operational/Readiness Improvements, etc.
e.g. all web pages should download on a 64kbps line within 2 seconds.
OR there should be an increase in savings by 0.10 dollar per transaction.
2. Effort: Estimate the time that team members will spend on the project.
3. Total Costs: An estimate of the effort that will be required to execute the project is required.
Costs are divided into three types: a. Capital Items are costs associated with the procurement of
assets such as hardware and software. b. Expense Items are costs associated with operating
expenses, material, travel, training, supplies, books, copying, printing, etc. c. Effort are costs
associated with the total time team members work on a project based on an hourly rate for each
skill set or the actual salary of the team members.
10. Class of Project: The Project Classification matrix needs to be used in order to determine the
class of the project. When using the Classification matrix, the work effort; not the entire cost
needs to be taken into account.
11. Assumptions: Project assumptions are circumstances and events that need to occur for the
project to be successful but are outside the total control of the project team. Assumptions are
made to fill knowledge gaps; they may later prove to be incorrect and can have a significant
impact on the project. List only those assumptions that have a reasonable chance of occurring. If
an assumption is invalidated at a later date, then the activities and estimates in the project plan
should be adjusted accordingly.

Risks: Project risks are circumstances or events that exist outside of the control of the project
team and will have an adverse impact on the project if they occur. (In other words, whereas an
issue is a current problem that must be dealt with, a risk is a potential future problem that has not
yet occurred.) All projects contain some risks. It may not be possible to eliminate risks entirely
but they can be anticipated and managed, thereby reducing the probability that they will occur.
Risks that have a high probability of occurring and have a high negative impact should be listed.
Obstacles/Constraints List any known constraints imposed by the environment or by
management. Typical constraints may include fixed budget, limited resources, imposed interim
and/or end dates, predetermined software systems and packages, and other predetermined
solutions.
12. Supporting Documents: Include in this section copies of pertinent documents such as:
Business Case or Plan University guidelines or policies applicable to this project
13. Approval: Use this section for approval signatures from project stakeholders.