Unit 8 – Project Management

Lesson 1 – Critical success factors

Today’s lesson

By the end of the lesson All students should be able to:• Understand the most critical factors in order of

creating a successful projectMost students should be able to:• Demonstrate why the 5 factors are critical to the

success of their projectSome students should be able to: • Create a checklist to ensure that their project has the

best chance of being successful

Common characteristics

All projects have three things in common:

1. They have an overall objective2. They aim to change something3. They have an end where, if they have been

successful, the objective has been met.

Common characteristics cont’d

Most projects involve the following people:

1. The customer, who benefits from a successful project2. The designer, who turns the customer’s needs into

something realisable3. The project manager, who plans, manages and

monitors the work.

In a small project, these roles may be undertaken by one person.

Critical success factors• At the start of your project you should define what

success should look like. These could include:

• Functional• Timescale• Resources• Ease of use• Performance

Functional factors

• The functional factors state what is to be achieved.• Can be broken into 3 categories:

• Mandatory• Important• Desirable

• Make sure this is clear when you have your meeting!

Timescale factors

• All projects have a timescale that will include an end date.

• Make sure that the timescale gives you enough time to complete your work.

• Make sure that you stick to the timescale that is allocated.

Resources

• A project’s resources include people, their effort and money.

• For any project their is may be a limit for how many people can be involved, how much effort they can put in, and a fixed cost which the project should not exceed.

Ease of use

• Software which people need to use on a daily basis should be full of features.

• Powerful functions should be used with a couple of buttons pressed.

• Keep in mind how easy to use will your MLE pages be for the department you are working for.

Performance

• Make sure that you meet the minimum performance requirements that your department will depend upon.

• Is there an ability to hand in work via the MLE?• Are there RSS feeds to other websites (if the

department so wishes)?• Can the page provide up to date information about the

department?

Why some projects fail

These are some reasons why the project may fail:

– The project does not meet the customer’s needs– The project is more complex than expected– The project grows as it goes along