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Approaches to Project Management and Methodology

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AS1: Approaches to Project Management and Methodology

March 2015

1. Standard approaches to manage projects

Provide brief descriptions of the following standard project management approaches:

(a) The traditional approach (5 steps)

The traditional approach to project management identifies a sequence of five steps to be completed in chronological order, as follows:

* Initiation * Planning * Execution * Monitoring * Completion/closure

Most projects will incorporate these stages, even where more complex project management methods are used but it is a method suited to simple, smaller projects, which do not have multiple tasks and people within the project team.
(Hom 2013) Available at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4014-project-management.html) Accessed 25/03/15

(b) Critical chain project management

This method was developed by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt and introduced in his book ‘Critical Chain’ (1997). It applies his Theory of Constraints to address project delivery issues, such as missed deadlines and increased costs and it focuses on eliminating delays due to uncertainty and over-estimation of task duration.

The critical chain is comprised of the tasks which result in the longest path to project completion, with critical resources assigned to the tasks. The project schedule is then shortened by reducing the estimated task time and buffers are built in to provide for conflicts.
Available at: (http://www.goldratt.co.uk/resources/critical_chain/) Accessed 25/03/15

(c) Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)/Critical path method

The PERT method was developed in the 1950s for the US Navy and is widely used alongside the Critical Path method for more complex projects.

The project tasks are determined and scheduled in the order in which they must be completed. Tasks which must be completed in

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