...is a certain definite result. Since a project can be applied to various spheres of activity of a company, it automatically gets a wide range of usage (Reynolds, 2009).” The primary purpose of this document is to achieve an enhanced perceptive of project management and to provide information on key elements that is the core of most officially run projects. This document will answer three general questions necessary in the construction of project management. These questions are: What is project management? What are the basic phases of the project lifecycle and their purposes? Why is it important for organizations to use project management to accomplish tasks? A Project Lifecycle and Purposes “A project is a temporary and one-time exercise which varies in duration. It is undertaken to address a specific need in an organization, which maybe to create a product or service or to change a business process (Lewis, 2011).” However, Dr. Lewis’s definition may contradict how businesses may...
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...the simulation, “All projects that an organization undertakes are linked to the organization’s strategic plan. This entails the development of a process by which projects are selected based on their relevance to the strategic plan” (Wideman, 1999). This of course is much easier said then done. However after completing the first step of the project by insuring that the project is necessary and pertains to the organizational mission the next step is finding the right person to oversee the project. This position is much like a quarterback leading a team to the goal line for a touchdown. To many the life of a project manager is simple; deliver a project according to three criteria: on time, on budget and to specifications. But, how are you to get there exactly? One way is to create a project plain. A project plan is similar to map. It helps guide Project Managers and the Project Team to their destination or goal. In the simulation it was very clear that a project plan was used, but was not prepared to offer guidance as challenges were presented. The team was not as prepared as they would have been with more in depth planning. Many of us want to jump straight to the execution stage and spend little or no time in the planning stage. Spending the time to plan upfront will help you reap the benefits during the life of the project. In the first section of the simulation you are given the opportunity to increase your power base and influence by suggesting different projects to the PCS...
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...2/1/04 The Role of the Project Life Cycle (Life Span) in Project Management A literature review by R. Max Wideman (Updated February, 2004.) Introduction Patel and Morris have stated that "The life cycle is the only thing that uniquely distinguishes projects from non-projects".1 If that is true, then it would be valuable to examine just what role the so-called project life cycle plays in the conduct of project management. And, moreover, has this changed over the years as we improve our understanding of the complexities of project management. So, what is the project life cycle? According to the same source "The sequence of phases through which the project will evolve. It is absolutely fundamental to the management of projects . . . It will significantly affect how the project is structured. The basic life cycle follows a common generic sequence: Opportunity, Design & Development, Production, Hand-over, and Post-Project Evaluation. The exact wording varies between industries and organizations. There should be evaluation and approval points between phases often termed 'gates'."2 How does that make it different from normal operational corporate endeavors? For that we must understand the definition of project. According to Richard E. Westney: "A project can be defined as the work required to take an opportunity and convert it into an asset."3 In this sense, both the opportunity and asset are singular, with the implied use being for generating benefit – rather than consumed as a...
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...11/17/07 The Project Management Life Cycle By Jason Westland (A book review by R. Max Wideman) Introduction Editor's Note: We liked so much of this book that we asked for the author's permission to quote extensively from the whole of Jason Westland's Chapter 1. This is because it succinctly describes what follows in detail in the remainder of the book. However, in pursuing our regular book review structure, we placed his text under corresponding headings. Since the quotations are so extensive, we have not followed our normal practice of indenting quoted paragraphs. However, the references are identified in the footnotes. As Jason says: "Welcome to The Project Management Life Cycle. This book describes the Methodl23® Project Management Methodology (MPMM)1 and provides a practical approach to managing projects. Every phase, activity and task in the project life cycle is described here in detail to help you manage staff, customers and suppliers efficiently. By reading this book, you will gain the knowledge and confidence required to properly initiate a project, create detailed project plans, build high quality deliverables, monitor and control delivery and close projects effectively. "Not only will you learn how to successfully complete projects from end to end, but you will also be armed with a suite of tools and templates to allow you to create project deliverables quickly and easily. More than 150 charts, tables and diagrams are included in this book to help explain the steps...
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...Perceptions of Grade VII Pupils: Tablet PC as a Replacement for Mathematics Textbook Ms. Irene Mae L. Manabat/ Dr. Juanita M. Cruz/ Marlon I. Tayag Systems Plus College Foundation, Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines irenemaemanabat@gmail.com/ juanitacruz2004@yahoo.com/ lonskee2000@yahoo.com Abstract Tablet PC for mathematics was introduced this school year to the SPCF Grade VII pupils. This study assessed their perception on its use as a replacement for the mathematics textbook. Forty-eight pupils answered a 25-item Likert-scaled questionnaire adapted from several related researches. Eight factors were generated namely: Time-saving (loading=0.66, mean= 5.16); Instructional tool for learning mathematics (loading= 0.61, mean= 5.04); Interactive technological tool (loading= 0.65, mean= 5.53); More interesting way to learn mathematics (loading= 0.76, mean= 5.10); Minimal school bag load (loading= 0.73, mean= 5.85); Extended tablet usage (loading= 0.60 mean= 5.08); Visual learning of mathematics (loading= 0.72,mean= 5.95); Usability in higher mathematics (loading= 0.89, mean= 5.5). Cronbach alpha= 0.75 and 73% dependent variable variance is explained by independent variable variance. T-test in the final grades revealed no significant difference between all sections and between 2 best sections that used and did not use the tablet. Significance was indicated between 2 regular sections that used and did not use the tablet. Overall mean (5.30) indicated a moderately agreeable response...
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...organization chosen is Acorn Properties Limited, which is a limited company, incorporated in Kenya with its head office in Nairobi. Acorn is a real estate investment company offering solutions that range from project management to development and acquisition partnership in the Kenyan real estate sector. The company uses a combination of Goal-based or issue-based strategic planning and Alignment Strategic Planning model. Contents of their strategic plan 1. Company’s purpose –mission statement-The Group aims to be recognized as the most progressive, innovative and reliable development partner in the real estate industry in Africa through provision of superior results for our partners that not only meet but exceed their expectations. The Group will strive to manage complexity, pay attention to detail and increase our ingenuity in the real estate...
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...Using Facebook to Teach Rhetorical Analysis Jane Mathison Fife The attraction of Facebook is a puzzle to many people over the age of thirtyfive, and that includes most college faculty. Yet students confess to spending significant amounts of time on Facebook, sometimes hours a day. If you teach in a computer classroom, you have probably observed students using Facebook when you walk in the room. Literacy practices that fall outside the realm of traditional academic writing, like Facebook, can easily be seen as a threat to print literacy by teachers, especially when they sneak into the classroom uninvited as students check their Facebook profiles instead of participating in class discussions and activities. This common reaction reflects James King and David O’Brien’s (2002: 42) characterization of the dichotomy teachers often perceive between school and nonschool literacy activities (although they are not referring to Facebook specifically): “From teachers’ perspectives, all of these presumably pleasurable experiences with multimedia detract from students’ engagement with their real work. Within the classroom economy technology work is time off task; it is classified as a sort of leisure recreational activity.” This dichotomy can be broken down, though; students’ enthusiasm for and immersion in these nonacademic literacies can be used to complement their learning of critical inquiry and traditional academic concepts like rhetorical analysis. Although they read these texts daily...
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...research | 03 | 1.4 Develop a detailed research question | 04 | 1.5 Justify the choice of research question | 05 | Be able to develop a Research proposal | | 2.1 Evaluate research techniques to assess their suitability for the project | 05 | 2.2 Select suitable research Techniques | 06 | 2.3 Develop a detailed research proposal | 07 | Be able to undertake a literature review | | 3.1 Identify sources of information and literature relevant to the research question | 08 | 3.2 Critically review literature to inform the development of the research proposal or the research project | 08 | 3.3 Record and report literature review in an appropriate format for the project | 09 | Be able to use data and information collection and analysis techniques | | 4.1 Collect and analyses data and information to inform research | 10 | 4.2 Synthesize data and information to support result and conclusions of research | 10 | Be able to present Research with conclusion and make recommendation based on research carried out | | 5.1 Summarize findings of research project | 11 | 5.2 Draw conclusion and identify and any recommendation from research findings | 11 | 5.3 Present research in a suitable format | 12 | Conclusion | 13 | References | 14 | Introduction Research is a process of formulating some questions about any topic and formulating those questions and finding answers of those questions is the hardest part...
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...also defined project management as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet or exceed stakeholder objectives and expectations from a particular project” and according to ISO 10006 project management is the planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling all aspects and activities of the project in a continuous process to achieve its planned objectives”. Basically, project management deals with coordinating resources and managing people and change. Managing a project includes: Identifying, requirements, establishing clear and achievable objectives, balancing the competing demand for quality, scope, time and cost; Adapting specification, plan and approach to the different concerns and expectations of the various stakeholders” (Project Management Institute (PMI, 2004, pp.5-377). Wideman (2002) stated that project management effectiveness is a measure of...
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...Project Management Project Management Assembled by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD | Applies to nonprofits and for-profits unless noted Leaders Circles peer-training/coaching groups (nonprofits) | Authenticity Circles peertraining/coaching (for-profits) First-timers | Library home page | Library index of topics | Contact us Project management is a carefully planned and organized effort to accomplish a specific (and usually) one-time effort, for example, construct a building or implement a new computer system. Project management includes developing a project plan, which includes defining project goals and objectives, specifying tasks or how goals will be achieved, what resources are need, and associating budgets and timelines for completion. It also includes implementing the project plan, along with careful controls to stay on the "critical path", that is, to ensure the plan is being managed according to plan. Project management usually follows major phases (with various titles for these phases), including feasibility study, project planning, implementation, evaluation and support/maintenance. (Program planning is usually of a broader scope than project planning, but not always.) Categories of information include Overviews of Project Management Useful Skills -- Team Building and Group Leadership General Resources Related Library Links (including many other types of planning) On-Line Discussion Groups Various Perspectives What is Project Management? Overview...
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...The idea was to develop a brochure to promote project management in one of the client's departments. Today, project management is well established in the organization, but the answers to the questions are just as valid. R. Max Wideman 01 What is a project? A. The term project seems to be a buzzword that means a lot of different things to different people. Anything, for example, from a secretary's "project" to clean out an old filing cabinet to an engineer's "project" to create a multi-million dollar facility. Even these extremes have one thing in common: the application of work or effort to create a new situation or product, where "product" is used in its broadest sense. So a project can be any undertaking with a definite starting point and one or more defined objectives the completion of which spell out the end of the project. It should be added that for one reason or another most projects are restricted by limits imposed on resources (effort, equipment and materials) time and money. 02 Why do I need project management? A. Another way of asking this question is "What if I don't bother with project management?" The fact is, all projects demand some degree of attention to make them happen. Even the secretary needs to deliberately plan to set aside some time to clean out that filing cabinet, otherwise the job will never get done! Believe it or not exactly the same holds true no matter what the size of the project. Indeed, the bigger the project the more difficult it is to get it started...
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...Data Mining for Fraud Detection: Toward an Improvement on Internal Control Systems? Mieke Jans, Nadine Lybaert, Koen Vanhoof Abstract Fraud is a million dollar business and it’s increasing every year. The numbers are shocking, all the more because over one third of all frauds are detected by ’chance’ means. The second best detection method is internal control. As a result, it would be advisable to search for improvement of internal control systems. Taking into consideration the promising success stories of companies selling data mining software, along with the positive results of research in this area, we evaluate the use of data mining techniques for the purpose of fraud detection. Are we talking about real success stories, or salesmanship? For answering this, first a theoretical background is given about fraud, internal control, data mining and supervised versus unsupervised learning. Starting from this background, it is interesting to investigate the use of data mining techniques for detection of asset misappropriation, starting from unsupervised data. In this study, procurement fraud stands as an example of asset misappropriation. Data are provided by an international service-sector company. After mapping out the purchasing process, ’hot spots’ are identified, resulting in a series of known frauds and unknown frauds as object of the study. 1 Introduction Fraud is a million dollar business and it is increasing every year. ”45% of companies worldwide have fallen victim...
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...achievement of objectives may be unclear this is a project in which project success or failure is as clear as the race results. As an interesting and atypical project type, it provides excellent opportunities to illustrate, examine, and question the application and operation of the project management framework. The project was successful. The objectives were achieved; the races were won. This paper will briefly present, as a project, the campaign, which culminated in the winning of both the 1992 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and the 1992 Kodak Asia Pacific Ocean Racing Championship. The phases of the project life-cycle-concept, development, execution, and finishing (2); the four basic project management functions-management of scope, quality, time, and cost; and the other essential project management functions-human resource management, communications management, contract/procurement management, and risk management-will be discussed in relation to the project. As a case study, a project management framework is applied to the project, in retrospect. Many project managers tackle their tasks without conscious reference to the various project management frameworks developed by theorists. This project was carried out by a project initiator with many years of experience, and a reputation for success in leading projects in the corporate and financial...
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...____________________________ _____________________ MAL. UMAR ISAH OHIMEGE DATE PROJECT SUPERVISOR _________________________ _______________________ MAL. SANI SAIDU DATE PROJECT COORDINATOR _________________________ _______________________ SHETTIMA MUSTAPHA DATE HEAD OF DEPARTMENT DEDICATION We whole-heartedly dedicate this research study to God Almighty for His guidance, protection, care and infinite mercy that He bestrode upon us throughout the period of our study, who is the sources of wisdom and knowledge. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We whole-heartedly thank God Almighty for the opportunity He has granted to us to complete this piece of work successfully and for his infinite love, care and mercy upon our lives. We will never forget the efforts of our project supervisor Mal. Umar Isah Ohimege and also our honorable Head of Department Mal. Shettima Mustapha whosefatherly advice and contribution made this project successful. Also our thank goes to our lecturers in Mathematics and Computer Science Department, for their wonderful advice and for impacting on us...
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...this end, we reviewed the relevant research conducted in the last 15 years by following the procedures outlined below. (a) Using the widely used social science database PsycINFO, we searched for articles which focused on both games and learning. The keywords chosen were “gam*” and either “learn*”, “teach*”, or “educat*” (the wildcard * can stand for any of a defined subset of all possible characters; for example “gam*” includes “game,” “games,” “gaming,” etc.). This generated about 4000 peer-reviewed articles from the earliest date (i.e., before 1960) to the end of 2008. (b) Given that studies conducted a decade ago tended to be less rigorous methodologically or yield obsolete results, we decided to focus our attention on more recent research. Once we narrowed down the time period to the years of 1995 to 2008, about 2400 peer-reviewed articles were left in the search results. (c) A quick survey of the 2400 articles revealed that many of them were not about games for educational purposes (e.g., research on game theory). Therefore, we screened the 2400 articles and eliminated those that were not relevant. This further reduced the number of articles to about 300. (d) We examined the 300 articles and identified if they were empirical or purely...
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