Project Executing and Monitoring and Controlling

2500 words

2500 words, 1/22/18

Project Executing and Monitoring and Controlling

Your fellow project managers provided you with their thoughts on your tool selection during your weekly working lunch meeting. You have considered them and have developed your schedule, budget, and methods for monitoring and controlling those areas. You must now complete the Project Executing and Project Monitoring and Controlling sections of the Project Management Plan.

Update your existing

Project Charter/Project Management Plan template

to reflect the following:

· Performing quality assurance: Discuss the tools and techniques, such as quality audits, quality management tools, and process analyses, you will use to perform quality assurance for your project. 

· Managing the project team: Determine how you will manage the project team, including handling conflict and providing motivation. 

· Conducting procurements: Discuss any of the items you need to purchase for your project and the types of vendors, contractors, and suppliers you will encounter. 

· Controlling costs: Determine the methods, such as earned value management, forecasting, to-complete performance indices, project management software, and reserve analyses, you will use to ensure costs are controlled within the project. 

· Controlling risks: Discuss the methods you will use to control the risks in the project. These methods can include risk reassessment, risk audits, variance analysis, reserve analysis, meetings, and technical performance measurement.    

· Managing stakeholder engagement: Using the list of stakeholders defined in Unit 1, discuss how you will manage the engagement level of the stakeholders.

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2

PM

6

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Project Management Capstone

Project Charter/Project Management Plan

Compensation Plan

Randall J. Collins

January 1

7

, 201

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

2

1.0 Project Initiating

3

1.1 Project Charter

3

1.1.1 Justifying the Project

3

1.1.2 Aligning the Project to the Organizational Strategy

3

1.1.3 Identification of Stakeholders

5

2.0 Project Planning

6

2.1 Defining the Scope

6

2.2 Work Breakdown Structure

6

2.3 Project Schedule

7

2.4 Project Budget

7

2.5 Communications Matrix

8

2.6 Risk Identification

9

3.0 Project Executing

11

3.1 Quality Assurance Tools and Techniques

11

3.2 Managing the Project Team

11

3.3 Procurements

11

3.4 Managing Stakeholder Engagement

11

4.0 Project Monitoring and Controlling

12

4.1 Cost Control

12

4.2 Risk Control

12

5.0 Project Closing

13

5.1 Project Finalization

13

5.2 Closing Procurements

13

6.0 Program Management and Emerging Trends

14

6.1 Letter to Senior Management

14

6.2 Program Management

14

6.3 Emerging Trends

14

References

15

Appendix

1
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1.0 Project Initiating

1.1 Project Charter
1.1.1 Justifying the Project
The purpose of this project is to improve the profits of the business which will be attained through proper compensation of the employees in the business and thereby boosting their morale. In the presentation of a business life, the compensations and benefits given to the employees are important aspects. Fair compensation of employees inspires them to give outstanding performance in their execution of the tasks assigned to them which results in improved performance of the business. A good compensation system in the business also helps to improve the employee’s commitment to their employment.
1.1.2
Aligning the Project to the Organizational Strategy
In order to come up with an effective compensation and benefits plan for the business, I have to come up with a plan which will help me to revamp the existing compensation and benefits plan in the business. During the preparation of this plan, I have to consider what is best for the employees in the company and also the company in terms of sustainability of the compensation plan (Culpepper, 2014). An effective compensation plan must meet the following conditions; first, the plan must be documented on a piece of paper and therefore the company should provide the essential tools for the human resource manager to have access to the materials which are essential to the project. Secondly, an effective compensation plan must contain all the types of compensation given to the employees by the company which includes the following; basic salary, wages, merit enhances, dividends and overtime compensation along with other income sharing plans.
An effective compensation plan should have a policy which governs the number of hours worked by every employee per week. It should also have a policy which clearly defines the bases on which the dividends are awarded to the employees. Finally, an effective compensation plan should clearly indicate the minimum wages for all the job groups in the company and this should be indicated in the job description along with the skills required for different tasks.
On a normal basis, a compensation plan should encourage the employees in their execution of the tasks assigned to them in the company without necessarily having to create a sense of prerogative in the long-run. As the human resource manager, I will present this project to various stakeholders of the company one of which being the higher management in the company in order to seek support for the project. The most important aspects in having a successful compensation and benefits plan are to focus on proving the employees in the company with fair compensation and this among other benefits will help the company to retain the experienced and talented workers in the company. Fair compensation of employees enables them to support and work on achieving the goals and objectives of the company (Culpepper, 2014). The official salary and wage arrangements should be applied in the preparation of salary range in the company. Using the official salary arrangements as the basis for the determination of salary ranges in the company will help in the development of a plan which is fair to the employees and affordable to the company.
According to wages.com, 25% – 75% is the wages range that is proposed by corporations. This range takes into account various advantages and benefits which are reliable to the budgeting preparation of the company. When designing the company’s compensation arrangement, all the types and shapes of compensations and benefits are given to the employees in the company should be included in the compensation plan given that they are available to workers in the company.
1.1.3
Identification of Stakeholders
One of the stakeholders of this project is the management of the company. The successful implementation of any project must have the support of the management. The management is responsible for passing the budget for any project that is implemented in the company and therefore they are the main stakeholders of this project as it will require being sustained by funds provided by the company (eHow, 2014). Employees of the company are the second stakeholders of this project primarily because it involves their remuneration for services given to the company. As I stated earlier, fair remuneration boosts the morale of the employees which increases their productivity in the company.
For this reason, it is important to have the employees’ support before the implementation of this project and one way to do this is to involve them in the development of the project. Those who invest with the company are also stakeholders of this project. The investors provide the company with the required capital for various investments and they receive the returns for their investment mostly in form of dividends. Increasing employees’ compensation will increase the production costs which will reduce the returns for the investors and therefore it is important to get their support before the implementation of this project.

2.0 Project Planning
2.1 Defining the Scope
The scope of the business is to develop a compensation plan that will benefit the company. By ensuring that employees are motivated, the company will be assured an increase in performance thus increasing productivity (Snyder, 2014). Overall, the project is intended to overhaul the current compensation and remuneration system thus benefiting both parties involved those being the company and the employees. All departments in the organization shall be analyzed thoroughly to monitor their performance. By understanding the performance of the employees it will provide the needed guidance on which branch of the organization shall need more motivation compared to the other (Snyder, 2014).
2.2 Work Breakdown Structure
Work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project tool that is used to breakdown the project into manageable portions. This will allow the management to have more control over the entire process and make the needed modifications to one structure without affecting the others. Nonetheless, this project will be broken down according to the respective departments available. With reference to the scope, the agenda is to measure performance and note areas that require more motivation than the others (Globerson, Vardi, & Cohen, 2016). This will allow the project manager to create a flexible and dynamic compensation plan that will adhere to the needs of each employee adequately.
The concept behind this notion is that not all departments have similar performance reviews as others are noted to be poor in completing tasks whereas others perform effectively (Globerson, Vardi, & Cohen, 2016). Therefore, by identifying the department that requires the most amount of motivation it can be instrumental in developing the compensation system that would benefit the company and employees (Snyder, 2014). However, for the compensation system to be impartial the data collected has to be strict and non-bias.
2.3 Project Schedule
The project will have to be conducted without affecting normal organizational operations and performance. Therefore, the project manager will have to develop monitoring teams that will collect data on every department (Mubarack, 2015). Moreover, the project manager can hire teams from the respective departments and thus limit the traffic of people. This would be vital, as it would reduce the amount of interruptions that may occur. However, the drawback with this strategy would be that the team that would be assigned the duty of collecting data would be overworked thereby resulting in poor performance.
This thereby limits the project manager to hiring extra team members on a limited contract (Mubarack, 2015). They will each be given specific tasks that will enable them to work without being affected by the normal operations of the organization. Data collection in this manner will be instrumental as each employee will work under normal conditions whereas the team members will be using observation and questionaries’ to collect data.
2.4 Project Budget
The budget of the project would be miniscule considering most of the work that would be performed would be the collection of data as presented in the scope. By reducing the project budget, it will allow the company to save up on funds that would be redirected in the compensation system that would be developed (Raudla, Karo, Valdmaa & Kattel, 2015). Nonetheless, the project will have to spend money in remunerating employees who may be overworked or for the team that will be hired to collect data on the respective departments within the organization. Moreover, the project team will be paid for the intellectual work performed by formulating a new system that will benefit the organization (Raudla, Karo, Valdmaa & Kattel, 2015). The budget not only allows the management to know the expenditure but also provides a list of activities that will take place in the company.
Moreover, the ability of a project manager to stay within the constraints of the budget determines their professional nature. Majority of project managers face runaway project costs, low-quality work, deliverables, and non-motivated teams. This is associated with improper project budgeting, a practice that can be stated to be common. This is because managers ignore the factors that have to be considered during budgeting. This results in high returns or poor quality work if the funds are insufficient. Managers need to train on the importance of budgeting properly as it is the backbone between the relationship of the management and personnel.
2.5 Communications Matrix
A communication matrix is a tool that is used to identify how the project manager is communicating and establish a logical goal for communication. This means that the project manager will have to identify all the stakeholders of the organization them being the management, employees and investors. The project manager will then be tasked by determining the information that will be passed to each stakeholder member concerning the project. The information passed may include for example the progress of the project, secondly, identify to the respective stakeholder the restrictions or problems encountered and provide guidance on how it can be eliminated (Snyder, 2014).
The project manager, before imparting the stakeholders with information, should be knowledgeable of the seven levels of communication behaviors. This means that the project manager has to view the faces of all the stakeholders. It was further discovered that these behavior is not trained but is natural (Snyder, 2014). Moreover, it was speculated that the results of that research had similar results as the relationship between parent and child.
2.6 Risk Identification
Risk identification is the initial step of the risk analysis and management process and it entails identifying the risks that could deter the achievement of a project (Kaplan & Mikes, 2012). This process entails the documentation and communication of the risks identified. With this kind of project as well as any other, risks are expected to be in place. As the project manager means of identifying or predicting these risks has to be formulated. The best technique that will be used will be the use of risk screening.
This technique allows the project manager to create a list of possible risks and then categorize them in to four categories (Snyder, 2014). The first is low impact and low probability, these are risks whose occurrence can be neglected or easily rectified. The main concern that the project manager will have will be the monitoring of these risks to ensure that they do not increase (Snyder, 2014). The second is high impact and high probability; they can cause project failure or termination and require close monitoring. The project manager will have the task of determining if the project is in a situation that may require termination or the benefits of taking the risk outweigh the drawbacks (Snyder, 2014).
With this in mind, it identifies the essentialities of risk management. Any project is bound to have risks and the action of either evading or pursuing the risk has to be calculated before any action is taken. For example if there are any engineering complications that can delay the project and may lead to termination by the client but may have overall benefits, the project manager will need to make the needed calculations. The third is low impact, high probability; they are mainly caused by uncertainties and can escalate from minor to severe risks (Snyder, 2014). These uncertainties can range from the cost of labor, deliverables, equipment or even the productivity of the staff.
Other uncertainties include the changes that the investors may require for the project. Overall, with this type of risk it should have interventions implemented within the project planning phase. This will allow the project manager to implement different solutions to the project. The final is high impact low probability, by definition these risks are rare occurrences and they are difficult to create probabilities (Snyder, 2014). With the lack of data the only means of creating probabilities will be through subjective valuations. With such estimations, it lacks the scientific accuracy. This, therefore, leaves the management with the only option of monitor, alleviate and manage risks.

3.0 Project Executing
3.1 Quality Assurance Tools and Techniques

3.2 Managing the Project Team

3.3 Procurements

3.4 Managing Stakeholder Engagement

4.0 Project Monitoring and Controlling
4.1 Cost Control

4.2 Risk Control

5.0 Project Closing
5.1 Project Finalization

5.2 Closing Procurements

6.0 Program Management and Emerging Trends
6.1 Letter to Senior Management

6.2 Program Management

6.3 Emerging Trends

References
Project Management Institute. (2013a). The standard for program management (3rd ed.). [VitalSource version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781935589839/cfi/6/2!/4/2@0:13.5
Project Management Institute. (2013b). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (5th ed.). [VitalSource version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781935589815/cfi/6/4!/4/2@0:94.1
Culpepper. (2014). Creating Competitive and Equitable Pay Levels. Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/compensation/Articles/Pages/SalaryStructures.aspx
eHow. (2014). How to Write a Compensation Plan. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/how_2076418_write-compensation-plan.html
How to define the scope of a project. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.cio.com.au: http://www.cio.com.au/article/401353/how_define_scope_project/
Raudla, R., Karo, E., Valdmaa, K., & Kattel, R. (2015). Implications of project-based funding of research on budgeting and financial management in public universities. Higher Education, 70(6), 957-971.
Globerson, S., Vardi, S., & Cohen, I. (2016). Identifying the Criteria Used for Establishing Work Package Size for Project WBS. The Journal of Modern Project Management, 4(1).
Mubarak, S. A. (2015). Construction project scheduling and control. John Wiley & Sons.
Snyder, C. S. (2014). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute.
Robert S Kaplan & Anette Mikes. (2012). Managing risks: a new framework. Harvard Business Review

Appendix
Each Appendix appears on its own page.