Chapter 11 - Project Management

Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.

The triple constraint is related to project management which is an important task of any business. Sometime the triple constraint can be called the 'project management triangle'. The three attribute are; cost, quality (scope) and schedule. Every project must have a budget, and funds specifically allocated to its cause, this is in relation to cost. The quality of the project may include; quality of staff working on the project and the quality of the  performance. The scope projects what is expected of the project/ final result. The schedule; there must be certain time frames allocated towards different times in order to get the project completed.

For more information visit: http://www.enterprise-pm.com/pmbasics/triple-constraint

Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning.

A PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart is a graphical model that depicts a projects tasks and the relationships between these tasks. It defines the dependency between project tasks before the tasks are scheduled. In the diagram boxes display various attributes for the project such as schedule and the arrows indicate the one task that is dependent on the start or completion of another task. The critical path is the path from the start to the finish of the project that passes through all the tasks that are critical to the completion of the project.

A Gantt chart is simple bar chart that depicts tasks against a calendar. In a Gantt chart the tasks are listed vertically against the schedule which is horizontal. This particular diagram is ideal for representing the schedule of a project.

Further understanding on a Gantt Chart 

Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success.

Managing People: This is one of the hardest and most critical tasks a project manager undertakes. It involves the managing the people involved in completing the project and any conflicts that may arise during the duration of the project. Managing people is one of the more difficult factors in ensuring the smooth completion of the project. A project manger not only has to manage the stakeholders of the project, and the project but the development team as well. 

Managing Communications: Is the key to a successful project and it is often helpful if the project manager plans what and how to communicate as a formal part of the project management plan. A communication plan is where the manager distributes timely, accurate and meaningful information such as time, cost, quality and scope. Also involved with the communication is the need for the project manager to update stakeholders of the progress of the project and makes any requests of additional resources.
Managing Change: Changes can come in the form of a crisis, market shift or technological development. A successful project manager will learn how to adapt to and even predict changes over the course of the project. Change within the duration of the project is inevitable and with the challenges and complexities that organisations face in today’s rapidly changing environment, effective change management is a critical core competency. Change management is a set of techniques that aid in the evolution, composition and policy management of the design and implementation of a system.

Outline 2 reasons why project fails and two reasons why projects succeed.

Reasons why projects fail:

1. Poor Scope - this refers to the work that must be completed to deliver a product with the specified features and functions. A project scope statement includes constraints, assumptions and requirements. If the scope of the project is not adequately planned the final product won’t be achieved because either it won’t meet the requirements or the work will also affect the time and cost of the project. With a poor scope the designated work will take longer than initially estimated or even come in over budget. 
2. Lack of project management - this can lead to numerous issues such as unreasonable time, cost and scope, there is a need to seek a good balance on these competing demands throughout the project. Between 30-70% of projects fail because a project won’t be delivered upon schedule, come in over budget or don’t deliver the scope initially agreed upon. A good project manager must also manage the people involved, communication and the change over the course of the project. If a project manager cannot ensure that the people involved with the project are able to work together the project won’t align with the schedule and the work won’t be done to a satisfactory level.

Reasons why projects succeed

1. Good communication - a project will have the adequate support of all involved because they will be informed and understanding of the requirement for the project. If all involved are kept in adequate communicative bounds they will be able to contribute effectively whilst also feeling part of a team environment.
2. Good decision making structure -this involves initially choosing the correct people, cost, time and scope of the project. It can also mean making decisions regarding whether or not to outsource the project, these are vital in the success of the project. Good decision making can also be a factor when changes occur during the projects duration and a manager must make crucial decisions to ensure success.

Chapter 9 - Customer Relationship Management & Business Intelligence

What is your understanding of CRM?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM), is a business strategy used by a company in order to reduce costs and increase profits through solidifying customer relationship by customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention.

Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.

Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, including sales, marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database as necessary.

One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact “channels” in a company over time without having to repeat the history of their interaction each time.

Consequently, many call centers use some kind of CRM software to support their call centre agents.

Analytical CRM analyses customer data for a variety of purposes including:

1. design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimise marketing effectiveness
2. design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, retention
3. analysis of customer behaviour to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)
4. management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis
5. prediction of the probability of customer defection (churn).

Link: CRM

Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments.

There are three types of CRM technologies used by marketing departments. They are:

1. List Generator: Complies customer information from a variety of sources and segment the information for different marketing campaigns.
2. Campaign management systems: Guide users through marketing campaigns performing such tasks as campaign definition, planning, scheduling, segmentation and success analysis.
3. Cross-selling & Up-selling: Is selling additional products or services to a customer. Up-selling is increasing the value of the sale.

 Sales department also uses three CRM technologies. They are:

1. Sales management: Automate each phase of the sales process, helping individual sales representatives co-ordinate and organise all of their accounts.
2. Contact management: Maintains customer contact information and identifies prospective customers for future sales.
3. Opportunity management: Target sales opportunity by finding new customers or companies for future sales.

How could a sales department use operational CRM technologies?

Sales department uses operational CRM technologies, to help plan customer meetings, provide an analysis of sale cycle, maintaining organisational charts, determine potential customer and competitors.

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Describe business intelligence and its value to businesses.

Business intelligence (BI) refers to applications and technologies that are used to gather, provide access to analyse data and information to support decision-making efforts. An example is if a company is looking to buy new machinery, they can take statistical data of previous revenue to project what may happen next year in order to make sure that their costs are covered. It is an extremely valuable resource. 

BI can also help calculate the best sales people of the company, the demographics of customers and which customers buy more than others.

Explain the problem associated with business intelligence. Describe the solution to this problem.

Business Intelligence may not always be the most reliable form of calculating for the future, for example there could be the launch of a new competitive business which will effect the sales of your business, or a sudden turn in the economy could also effect revenue.

What are the two possible outcomes a company would get from using data mining?

Data mining is finding patterns in statistical data, this could show a business the downfalls and up's of certain activities e.g. like what time of he year a product is bought the most. This can allow for businesses to prepare for certain times of the year. Data mining can also allow a company to understand the frequency of products that are bought.