Decision making Essay

Unit 10 - End Of Module Project3
Your End of Module Project is due at the end of this unit.

Part of the fabric of organisational life is Project Management and projects are hugely diverse in terms of their scale and size:
Outline the key stages involved in managing a project.
At each stage, specifically:
Outline the key roles and responsibilities of all those involved
Define the likely cost / resource requirements, probable difficulties which will be encountered, the critical success factors, particularly the direct/indirect financial implications
Critically evaluate the ’success’ of a project recently undertaken in your organisation:
Specifically referring to the key stages documented in the above
Making specific recommendations in approach for future projects as a result of your findings

The word count is between 1500 minimum to 2000 words maximum.
Name: Andrew Hughes
Module: Financial Decision Making
Tutor: Richard Andrews
Date: 12th November 2011

Academic Integrity Statement: I have read and understood the Academic Integrity guidelines for Kaplan Open Learning and the University Of Essex, and declare that this assignment conforms to all of the rules and regulations contained therein.
R E P O R T

To: Richard Andrews

From: Andrew Hughes

Date: 12th November 2011

Subject: Upgrading the hot water system at Pangbourne College.

1.0 TERMS OF REFERENCE
Within this report I will endeavour to outline the key stages involved in managing a project, looking at the roles and responsibilities of those involved. Define the likely costs, resource requirements, and the probable difficulties which will be encountered. Also paying attention to the critical success factors, particularly, those which have direct and indirect financial implications. From these findings I shall evaluate if there are any recommendations to be made to the approach for future projects.

2.0 PROJECT AT PANGBOURNE COLLEGE
A recent project undertaken at Pangbourne College was the upgrading of the hot water system in the kitchen. The need to change the current system was brought to the attention of the catering team during a visit from the company’s internal auditors and again the following month by the environmental Health officer on their visit. On both of these visits the temperature of the water did not reach the advised 50°c to prevent Legionnaires disease. Due to this fact a four star award was given instead of the maximum five and this highlighted that a project to rectify it needed to happen.

3.0 STAGES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
All projects have the same key stages no matter the size or nature of the project, or at least they should to stand a chance of being a success. There are a couple of variations to the stages/phases of project management ,Harvey Maylor states four - define the project, design it, deliver it and develop it. This is quite a simple explanation and others such a H. James Harrington go into further detail listing six - selection, initiation, planning, execution, control and closure. Despite the way each theory describes and divides each phase, it seems they both have the following common themes - need for a project, the outcome of it must be defined, it must be researched and planned, then delivered and developed and finally reviewed.

The first stage is the need for the project or initiation by this we mean a cause or a reason for the project. This could be a number of things from new laws introduced such as a low emission zones requiring commercial vehicles to be modified or an increase in the number of people on the council housing list therefore creating a need for more housing developments.
With the project at Pangbourne this stage involved the auditors who found the temperature of the water to be too low and this was brought to the attention of the representative of the company i.e. the catering manager was informed.

The next step is defining the project, this is when a goal is set for the project

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