Project Management - Kid's First Charity Trip To Mount Kilimanjaro, An Essay.

Understand and be able to discuss the context of project and the management methods necessary for the successful delivery of projects

Understand and evaluate the riles of a variety of parties within a project

Understand and evaluate commonly used approaches to delivering projects

Understand the model of a project life cycle

The project mainly reflects on the London-based children’s charity “Kid’s First” which generally helps in providing number of services as well as support to the deprived youngsters across the capital. In order to execute the day-to-day work, a new venture was generally undertaken that was mainly arranged in order to take 100 socially deprived youngsters to the Mount Kilimanjaro during the holidays of summer. The trip that was arranged for the socially deprived children will be estimated to be completed within 46 days within the budget of around $25,260.00

The next project slide reflects on the project life cycle.

Project life cycle generally refers to a four step procedure that is mainly followed by various project managers while moving through different stages of project completion.

 In order to complete the planning of the trip, which was arranged for the socially deprived youngsters, the project life cycle was categorized into initiation phase, planning phase, execution phase as well as project closure phase.  

Initiation phase

In the project initiation phase, it is identified that following activities are generally undertaken in order to initiate trip planning to Mount Kilimanjaro for 100 socially deprived youngsters. The activities that are undertaken include the following:

• Identifying the objective of project
• Development of feasibility study
• Establishing project charter
• Appointing team members

In the planning phase of the project, the activities that are undertaken include the following:

• Theme selection
• Schedule and date estimation
• Budget estimation
• Listing youngsters who are joining the trip
• Conveying the trip schedule

• Flight boarding
• Flight landing
• Moving to booked Hotel
• Travelling to visitors place
• Site seeing at Kilimanjaro
• Trekking at Kilimanjaro
• Experiencing trekking and hiking
• Enjoying mountain scenery

Closure phase

Closure phase is considered as the last phase of the project. The activities that are generally undertaken in the closure phase include:

• Arrival at the airport
• Travelling to home
• Project closure

After then, we will reflect on project scoping.

Project scoping is the generally considered as a part of project planning that mainly involves determination as well as documentation of different lists of project goals, features, deliverables as well as functions of the project. It is identified that the project scope is mainly categorized into in-scope as well as out-scope.

In-scope: The in scope of the project includes:

• Theme selection
• Booking flight, hotels and rooms
• Selection of place
• Budget and time estimation

Out scope: The out scope of the project include:

• Information about flights and hotels will not be provided
• Information about the socially deprived youngsters who are engage in the trip must not be provided

The next slide of the project reflect on project planning and control

The steps that are needed in order to plan as well as control the trip of Kilimanjaro mount are provided below:

  Arranging meetings: The project manager must hold meetings on a weekly basis in order to communicate with the project stakeholders so that any risks as well as challenges associated with the project can be easily mitigated in the initial state.

Tracking project progress: It is necessary to track the progress of the project progress in order to plan as well as control the project effectively. Effective project progress ensure that all the activities are on time and they will be executed within the assumed budget.

Project Life Cycle

Managing project risks: The risks as well as challenges that are associated with the project  must be managed appropriately in order to plan as well as control the project effectively. Management of project risk at the initial stages of the project is very much necessary to avoid negative impact of risks on the progress of the project

Performing quality control: Proper quality of customer service must be provided to the employees of the organization so that they can get influence due to service that is provided to them.

Next slide of the project is on project scheduling.

 Project schedule is one of the tool that generally helps in communicating the work that is required to be done, by utilizing specific resources within the assumed timeframe as well as budget. The schedule of the project can be easily tracked with the help of project management software.

Our next slide reflect on schedule of the project

Schedule: The schedule that is provided helps in reflecting that the entire trip to Kilimanjaro Mount can be completed successfully within the time-period of 46 days.

After schedule, WBS image is provided in the next slide

WBS: WBS is mainly defined as a hierarchal reflection of all the work that needs to be performed in terms of deliverables. The image of WBS is provided that generally reflects that the entire work of the project is mainly divided into four phases that is initiation, planning, execution as well as closure. The main reason of utilizing the WBS is that it helps in reducing the complicated activities into number of tasks that can be managed quite easily.

Our next slide generally focusses on cost planning and estimation

Cost planning is defined as a method that helps in determining the estimated cost of the project. It generally helps in providing a assumption about the project cost which will be needed for completing the project.

Cost estimation is defined as the approximation of the cost of the trip that was mainly arranged for the socially deprived youngsters. It is identified that cost of the project is estimated by using bottom- up approach. The bottom-up approach is utilized for cost estimation as with the help of this approach, the cost of the project can be estimated accurately.

 The image that is provided helps in reflecting the cost that is generally needed in order to arrange the trip for Kilimanjaro Mount for the socially deprived youngsters. It is assumed that the budget that is needed is around $25,260.00

Project Scoping

In this slide, risk management process is elaborated.

  Risk management is defined as a process that helps in analyzing, identifying as well as responding to various types of risks that generally occur over the life cycle of the project  for keeping the project on track so that the objectives as well as goals of the project can be easily met.

The risks of the project can be managed by utilizing five processes that are as follows:

  Identification of risk: In this step, the team uncover as well as recognize the risks that are associated with the trip.

Analyzing risk: After the identification of risks, the consequence as well as likelihood of the project are generally identified.

Evaluating or ranking the risk: After then the risks of the project are generally ranked by determining the risk magnitude, which is mainly the combination of consequence and likelihood.

Treating the risk: This is also considered as risk response planning. In this step, the risks with highest rank are assessed.

Monitoring the risk of the project: In this step, the risks that are associated with project are generally monitored as well as tracked.

It is identified that in the trip to Kilimanjaro the project manager faces number of risks during the project life cycle and the risks are as follows:

  Risk 1: The first risk that is identified occurs due to inappropriate estimation of budget

Inappropriate estimation of budget: The budget that was estimated are not appropriate for the completing the project successfully.

Mitigation: In order to resolve this issue, it is very much necessary to engage in market analysis to know the markets costs of the resource so that the budget estimation is done accurately.

Risk 2: Second risk generally occurs due to schedule slippage

Schedule slippage: If the project manager faces difficulty in tracking the progress of the project on a weekly basis, then they generally faces difficulty in completing the project on estimated time.

Mitigation: It is necessary to track the progress of the project on a weekly basis in order to avoid schedule slippage.

Risk 3: Third risk generally occurs due to schedule slippage

Improper management: If the project managers are not able to manage the project appropriately then it will be difficult to complete the project on time

  Mitigation: It is necessary to hire experienced project managers who will be able to manage the project appropriately.

Our next slide discusses on stakeholder management

  Stakeholder management is defined as a critical component that successfully helps in delivering the project, program as well as activity on time. The steps that are undertaken for managing the stakeholders of the project are as follows:

  Creating organizational breakdown structure: Proper development of organization structure is done in this step in order to collect information about the position of the organization.

Categorizing stakeholders: The stakeholders must categorized into three main groups that incudes immediate group, observational circle as well as community circle.

Understanding power and impact of stakeholders: The power as well as impact of the stakeholders must be categorized appropriately.

 Completion of power interest grid: After power as well as interest of stakeholders are identified, it is very much easy to complete the power interest grid.

Completion stakeholder management and communication plan: In the last step, proper communication plan is generally created in order to manage the stakeholders of the project successfully.

Coming to the slide of quality management,

It is identified that it is very much necessary to maintain the quality of the trip in order to provide proper experience of trekking to the socially deprived youngsters. The steps that are taken for providing quality experience are as follows:

Providing training to the stakeholders: Proper training to the stakeholders must be provided so that they behave well with the socially deprived youngsters.

Serving the deprived youngsters with proper behavior: It is necessary to serve the deprived customers with proper behavior in order to provide them proper quality based experience

Proper communication: It is very much necessary to communicate properly with the participants of the trip in order to meet their needs as well as requirements.

The slide on leadership and management discusses that leading a project towards success generally requires the project manager to get the entire work done effectively as well as efficiently. It generally requires proper vision, clarity as well as practical scheduling in order to attract the talented as well as efficient project team.

  Teamwork in the workplace is considered as one of the significant factor that helps in achieving project success. Effective teamwork within the project can be achieved by adopting steps that are as follows:

• Clear project vision and objectives
• Clear roles and responsibilities of stakeholders
• Encourage collaborating
• By building trust

Our last slide is on project closure and review.

In the project closure and review phase, the organization is able to implement changes within the business for determining the intended benefit of the project. It generally assist in identifying benefits of project management process.