Assessment 1 Bsbpmg 516 Manage project information and communication official PDF

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Assessment 1 BSBPMG516 Manage project information and communication BSBPMG516 Assessment 1 AUG 18 Page 1 of 4 Australasia International School - RTO Code: 6251 CRICOS Provider Number: 02747G Manage project information and communication Q&A – Case Study 1. Identify three types of information you would need to form the basis of your communication plan. You can analyse information via the process of filter, validate and disseminate. Explain what these processes are in less than 150 words, providing examples of each. 1. Perform a situation analysis. Conduct an audit to evaluate where you currently stand in terms of communications. You need to gather and analyze all relevant information within your company. To conduct your own communications audit, you may need to do the following: • Brainstorm with communication staff. • Conduct surveys and focus groups. • Talk to other departments in your company. 2. Define your objectives. After you collect and evaluate all information, define your overall communications objectives. What are the results you want to achieve? What do you want to accomplish by implementing this communication plan? Your objectives should be SMART: • Specific • Measurable. • Achievable. • Realistic. • Time-focused. 3. Define your key audiences. You need to know to whom you are delivering your messages. List all the key audiences of your organization. These may include the following: • Members/non-members. • Clients. • Related associations. • Educators. • Local government officials. • Media representatives. 2. Explain what communication management plan is. Identify three things that you may consider when developing your communication management plan. Provide an example of each of your chosen considerations. communication plan is your road map for getting your message delivered to your audience. It’s an essential tool for ensuring your organization sends a clear, specific message with measurable results. Writing a communication plan can be time-consuming. Here are six steps that will help you create an effective communication plan for your business. Identify media channels. Plan to deliver your messages to your key recipients through multiple media channels. Decide which media channels would be the most effective to get your message delivered to your target audiences.

Establish a timetable. In order to achieve your communications objectives, you need to plan and time your steps for the best results. Based on your research and your resources, develop a solid timing strategy to execute the steps of your communication plan. Evaluate the results. It’s always important to measure your results to understand whether you achieved your objectives. If you aren’t satisfied with the results, make necessary adjustments in order to perform better next time. 3. Explain what a designated project-management information system is. Identify three reasons why you would use a project-management information system. Project management information system: The Project Management Information System (PMIS) as defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI), is a standardized set of automated project management tools available within an organization and integrated into a system. But PMI has not specified which tools or technology to use as a PMIS. The Microsoft Share Point can be a used as a customized one. A reliable PMIS should support most, if not all, of the communication and collaboration needs of a project environment. The following is a list of the essential PMIS capabilities: 1. What is the essence of the project? What are the goals and objectives of the project? How are you planning to reach and achieve these goals and objectives? 2. Provide a shared understanding of the project. The charter should communicate its value and/or reason for existence to every person who has a part in it, from the team to the project manager, stakeholders, sponsors, etc. 3. Act as a contract between the project sponsor, key stakeholders and the project team. By noting the responsibilities of each party involved in the project, everyone is clear what their duties are. 4. What is information generation? How can you generate information? Research and identify how you store and retrieve information in your organisation. Identify who is not authorised to retrieve information in your organisation. Generating information Information comes from many different sources and can be directly or indirectly generated. Directly generated information is material that you require for a specific purpose, such as sales profits for the last quarter necessary for a report for the investors, and as such is generally requested from a source or system. Indirectly generated information is a byproduct of another activity that you have not requested, but that is useful for the project such as a suggestion from a team member on how to improve an existing communications channel that they use on a regular basis. Your communication management plan may cater for directly generated information but may not be as well armed for indirectly generated information. 5. The designated information validation processes need to be implemented, modified and monitored to optimise quality and accuracy of date. a. Identify three validation checks you use within your organisation. Explain the following: i. Why are these checks used? ii. Are these checks effective? iii. How can you improve these checks? iv. Who is responsible for ensuring these checks are carried out?

Validation of data Validation of data is a check, usually performed automatically by a computer system that ensures the data that has been entered is sensible and reasonable and that it adheres to specifications set out in the planning stages of the project. It does not, however, check for accuracy, so if the information has been entered incorrectly by users but still fits within the parameters set by the specifications, it will not highlight it as an inaccuracy. There are a number of ways in which to check the validity of data including: ➢ Check digit – the final digits of a code are used to check the other digits are accurate, such as in a barcode ➢ Format check – the way in which data is entered must be in a specific format, such as a date of birth must be DD/MM/YYYY ➢ Length check – checks the length of the data is correct, such as a password ➢ Lookup table – checks acceptable values in a table, such as in a calendar there are only 12 months in a year ➢ Presence check – checks that all mandatory fields are complete ➢ Range check – ensures that a value is within a specified range ➢ Spell check – checks the accuracy of the spelling of words

6. Identify three types of communication networks. Provide one reason why it is important to implement and maintain appropriate communication networks. Identify one environment you may use to communicate information and provide an example where you have previously used this environment and why you used this environment. Different environments for communication may include: Board meetings One to one meetings with clients/stakeholders Informal business lunches Open forums Presentations Updates on project website Corporate hospitality On-site development tours. Within the communications plan, you may wish to identify the different communications networks that will be used throughout the project. Not everyone involved in the project needs to have every piece of information handled by the communications team. It is, therefore, important to disseminate information through appropriate channels so that it reaches the right people for suitable use. Frequent and appropriate communication with all involved is essential to the smooth running of the project. It is particularly important to keep clients and other stakeholders up to date with all types of information as it is their interest, and most crucially their funding, that is keeping the project going. Without a continuous flow of agreed and necessary information, they may get disheartened with the project management team and pull their investment. 7. Identify three communication issues you may experience during a project. Provide an example of a communication and information management issue you have experienced previously. Explain what effect these issues had on the project. Whilst information management systems (IMS) implement technology to co-ordinate information, problems often arise due to human error in the implementation of IMSs. Common issues arising in the use of information management systems include: ➢ Lack of co-ordination between disparate

information management systems Old systems needing upgrading/replacing Limited/inconsistent use of systems by project staff BSBPMG516 Learner Guide AUG 18 Page 38 of 48 Australasia International School - RTO Code: 6251 CRICOS Provider Number: 02747G Poor quality information that includes: o out of date o inaccurate o duplicated o inconsistent. Lack of support from management Limited resources for managing systems Internal politics that prevent co-ordination of activities

8. How can project information ownership affect what happens to information? Identify one piece of information which is owned by your organisation relating to a project and one piece of information which is owned by a client. Explain how each piece of information is stored. For example, you may store organisation information relating to a project, in a warehouse off site, you may temporarily store client information in your organisation’s office for the client to retrieve at the end of the project. All records generated during the project should be kept for future reference if necessary. All required information should be filled in and all documents checked for accuracy. Decide which records need to be kept and collate all the documentation in chronological order ensuring you create a contents page that documents the author, the date and the version history number of the document. 9. Provide an example of a communication process you previously undertook and conduct an evaluation of the effectiveness of the actions you took to communicate in project. Suggest possible improvements which could be implemented to improve effectiveness. Ensure you detail the following: i. Activity you implemented ii. Procedure used to undertake the activity iii. Outcomes of the activity iv. Impact on project outcome. Within the communications plan, you may wish to identify the different communications networks that will be used throughout the project. Not everyone involved in the project needs to have every piece of information handled by the communications team. It is, therefore, important to disseminate information through appropriate channels so that it reaches the right people for suitable use. Frequent and appropriate communication with all involved is essential to the smooth running of the project. It is particularly important to keep clients and other stakeholders up to date with all types of information as it is their interest, and most crucially their funding, that is keeping the project going. Without a continuous flow of agreed and necessary information, they may get disheartened with the project management team and pull their investment. 10. Explain why it is important to document lessons learned. Identify how you would document lessons learned and what you would include. A lessons learned report is a vital piece of information to help to improve the communications in future projects. Every strategy employed by the communications team throughout the project should be evaluated, reported on and fed back to project authorities or senior management within your organisation at the end of the project. When reviewing the strategies, the whole project should be considered in conjunction with the communications input. Record essential information In order to put the communications strategies into context, it is important to record details of the project. Essential information includes: Project objectives

Project manager and leaders Description of the client/customer/sponor/investors – understanding their needs and expectations in terms of communication will have a bearing on the review Dates of the project Deliverables – certain communication 11. Identify three alternative communication methods and/or media. Explain how you would apply these methods and/or media in a project. RAG reviews – RAG stands for red, amber, green, and is a highly effective but simple way of communicating to all members of the team where the issues are and their priority. It is quite literally a traffic light visual effect where: o red means that immediate action must be taken to avert disaster o amber highlights an issue that is developing but can be easily resolved o green indicates that there are no issues in that specific area Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – used in all businesses, the KPIs should be directly linked to the objectives of the project Project dashboard – this is just like the dashboard of a vehicle that gives a snapshot of the overall progress and status of the project PowerPoint presentations – again, avoid overloading written information and use visual techniques to convey information. Leave time at the end of the presentation for the audience to ask questions; this allows them to consolidate their understanding of the information you have given and also to cover any areas you may have missed 12. Identify three methods you could use to evaluate information systems and communication processes. Information System Performances: response time, accessibility, characteristics of used computer language, realization of user’s demands, correction of mistakes, model and data safety, system documentation and procedures, system flexibility and system compatibility; Information performances: accuracy of output, promptness of output, precision of output, reliability of output, arrival of output, output completions and output format; Information manipulation: output capacity; User satisfaction: top management participation, payment method for expenses of service, user’s trust in the system and user participation; 13. Explain why it is important to evaluate information systems and communication processes. to evaluate Information Systems Development methods has shown that numerous attempts to assess these methods only yield inconclusive and questionable results. There are two general trends as to how various criteria for evaluation are organised. There are relatively ad hoc lists of criteria for evaluation, and systematically organised frameworks, which generally provide more authoritative assessment results. However, the frameworks investigated are too generic and disproportionate in their emphases on certain parts of a method. Our initial motivation was the development of a framework for assessment of Component-based Software Development methods. However, in response to the shortcomings in existing approaches to method evaluation, a more generic framework that can be used to evaluate various types of Information Systems Development methods such as object-oriented methods, structured methods etc, is presented in this paper. The proposed framework defines three major elements of a method, namely, System Models, System

Development Process and Software Architecture. This paper discusses the technique for evaluation of System Models and due to limitations on length of the paper, discussions on the evaluation of the other two elements are not included. 14. In small groups (2-5 people) assigned by your assessor, discuss and develop a communication management plan to be used in a project of your choice. Write a detailed plan which specifies the following: a. What is the project objective? b. Who is involved in the project? c. What communication tools will be used? d. What communication methods will be used and when? e. What are the communication expectations of the stakeholders? f. Who is responsible for providing communication? Project Assumptions

The following assumptions were made in preparing the Project Plan: 

OPD employees are willing to change business operations to take advantage of the functionality offered by the new mobile technology.

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Management will ensure that project team members are available as needed to complete project tasks and objectives.

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The Steering Committee will participate in the timely execution of the Project Plan (i.e., timely approval cycles and meeting when required).

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Failure to identify changes to draft deliverables within the time specified in the project timeline will result in project delays.

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Project team members will adhere to the Communications Plan.

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Mid and upper management will foster support and “buy-in” of project goals and objectives.

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The City will ensure the existence of a technological infrastructure that can support the new mobile technology.

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All project participants will abide by the guidelines identified within this plan.

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The Project Plan may change as new information and issues are revealed.

CONSTRAINTS

Project Constraints

The following represent known project constraints:

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Project funding sources are limited, with no contingency.

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Due to the nature of law enforcement, resource availability is inconsistent.

Related Projects

None known.

Critical Project Barriers

Unlike risks, critical project barriers are insurmountable issues that can be destructive to a project’s initiative. In this project, the following are possible critical barriers:

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Removal of project funding

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Natural disasters or acts of war

Should any of these events occur, the Project Plan would become invalid.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACH

Project Timeline Insert here

Project Roles and Responsibilities

Role Project Sponsor

Steering Committee

Responsibilities ▪

Ultimate decision-maker and tie-breaker

▪

Provide project oversight and guidance

▪

Review/approve some project elements

▪

Commits department resources

▪

Approves major funding and resource allocation strategies, and significant changes to funding/resource allocation

▪

Resolves conflicts and issues

▪

Provides direction to the Project Manager

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Review project deliverables

Participant(s) Insert Name

Insert Names

Role Project Manager

Project Participants

Responsibilities ▪

Manages project in accordance to the project plan

▪

Serves as liaison to the Steering Committee

▪

Receive guidance from Steering Committee

▪

Supervises consultants

▪

Supervise vendor(s)

▪

Provide overall project direction

▪

Direct/lead team members toward project objectives

▪

Handle problem resolution

▪

Manages the project budget

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Understand the user needs and business processes of their area

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Act as consumer advocate in representing their area

▪

Communicate project goals, status and progress throughout the project to personnel in their area

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Review and approve project deliverables

▪

Creates or helps create work products

▪

Coordinates participation of work groups, individuals and stakeholders

▪

Provide knowledge and recommendations

▪

Helps identify and remove project barriers

Participant(s) Debbie Whitson

To be identified by Steering Committee

Role

Subject Matter ...