SIM335: Identify and Briefly Discuss the Key Stages of The Project life Cycle: Managing Projects, UOS, Singapore

1. Identify and briefly discuss the key stages of the project life cycle (PLC). As a project manager, which stage of the PLC would you regard as most important? Provide relevant justification.

2. You work for SMART Solutions Pte Ltd (with 20 staff) – an Information Technology firm in Singapore involved in selling standardized computers. The company is embarking on a charity project to donate 50 computers to needy students (from low-income households) in support of home-based learning due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. This will be a small project with a short duration of two weeks to plan and organize. Which project structure would you recommend for this organization? Write short notes to describe the proposed structure and provide appropriate justification to support your recommendation.

3. Project control systems are often used to ensure the quality of project outcomes. Identify and briefly discuss the control methods you could introduce to ensure a project meets the desired outcome and is successful.

4. Critique on the usefulness of implementation a risk management system in relation to small-scale projects.

5. Write short notes to discuss THREE (3) deliverables commonly associated with project closure.

6. You have been tasked by the university’s student engagement office to plan and organise a 1-day orientation event at the start of the upcoming semester. The activities and durations have been identified as follows:

• Explain the importance of the critical path for project managers and what would be the course of action if activity along the critical path were delayed.
• Based on the data provided above, develop an AON project network (with calculations of forwarding pass, backward pass, and slack).
• Identify the critical path of this project.
• Develop the Gantt chart of this project.

Task 2: 

Case Study: With ongoing concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the reopening of campus for physical classes, you have been appointed by the university faculty Dean as the Project Manager in -charge of planning and organizing a 2-day health and safety campaign to create greater awareness among faculty students regarding COVID-19 and the appropriate control measures.

As the health and safety campaign is currently at the feasibility stage, you are required to prepare a project proposal report for top management’s approval. From a project management perspective, outline the key areas required to successfully manage this project – e.g. Project Scope Statement, Project Priorities (with a balanced trade-off and justification), Work Breakdown Structure (with relevant work packages), and Cost Estimation (with the time-phased budget).

Additionally, include considerations for managing the project risks by identifying and describing THREE (3) negative risks (i.e. what can go wrong during the project) and provide justification for EACH risk – why is the identified aspect a risk in this project?

The report should demonstrate the skills and competencies required by the Project Manager, along with relevant project management perspectives.