Project Management and Management Term Paper

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Project Management Notebook

This report provides a resourcing plan, a risk management plan, as well as a leadership and management plan for a three-day music festival to be held in Country Victoria during the 2016 Australia Day Weekend. The report also discusses the chosen approach for each plan, clearly highlighting why other alternatives may not be suitable for this type of project.

Resourcing Plan

Project resources generally fall in three categories: labor (human resources), equipment and facilities (such as machinery and venue) and materials (consumables such as stationery) (Thomsett, 2010). The type and quantity of resources required in each category is often determined by the nature and complexity of the project (Winch, 2010). A complex project such as an infrastructure construction project, for instance, would require more permanent staff and sophisticated equipment due to the time-consuming and resource-intensive nature of the project. However, a less complex project such as a three-day music festival would require volunteers, temporary staff, and less equipment.

Even so, determining the amount of resources required to accomplish a project may often be a daunting task for the project manager regardless of its character and complexity (Kloppenborg, 2015). The project manager may adopt from a number of approaches to estimate resource requirements. These include expert judgment (getting opinions from experts in the field); alternative analysis (weighing different alternatives of assigning resources); published data (relying on relevant articles, journals, periodicals, and books); bottom-up estimating (breaking down the project into smaller activities and determining the resources required for each activity); and historical data (getting data about similar projects done in the past) (Young, 2013).

In the case under consideration, relying on historical data presents the most suitable approach for estimating resource requirements. Since the Australia Day Weekend is held annually, data about festivals held in previous years can readily be obtained. There is less likelihood that this year's event would be significantly different from the previous ones. Previous data obviously can tell the average number of attendees to expect as well as the stakeholders and suppliers involved. Relying on historical data would help minimize the time and effort required in making resource estimations (Young, 2013). More importantly, a music festival project is not complex to the extent that it would require more sophisticated approaches such as bottom-up estimating, published data, and expert judgment, which usually involve more time, effort, and costs.

A three-day music festival expected to be attended by approximately 8,000 to 12,000 is a large event. Some of the key resources that will be required include volunteers, masters of ceremony (MC), security officers, a public address system, venue, banners, stationery, cars, garbage bins, as well as food and beverages. Appendix 1 provides a detailed description of the resources that will be required for the festival. The resourcing plan outlines not only the type of resources that will be required, but also their importance and where they will be obtained.

Risk Management Plan

Risk management is an important area of the project management body of knowledge (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2013). Any project, regardless of size and complexity, presents risks, which if not properly managed can result in unforeseen consequences. The first step in developing the risk management plan is to identify the possible risks (Lock, 2007). One of the most appropriate ways of achieving is to rely on past experiences, either the project manager's experiences, or experiences of similar events (Winch, 2010). As mentioned earlier, the Australia Day Weekend is a regularly held event. Therefore, knowledge of the risks associated with the event is readily available. For instance, risks common to such an event include chaos, theft, injuries, fire, traffic accidents, food poisoning, as well as unexpected changes in weather.

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Again, relying on past experiences would minimize the time and effort required in risk identification.

Risk identification is followed by risk evaluation in terms of likelihood and impact (PMI, 2013). This enables the project manager to prioritize the (most and least important) risks. Generally, risk evaluation process may take the quantitative or qualitative approach or a combination of both (Kloppenborg, 2015). Quantitative risk analysis entails the use of quantitative techniques such as sensitivity analysis, decision trees, and Monte Carlo analysis to evaluate the possibility and severity of the risks associated with a project (Meredith and Mantel, 2011). These techniques are often suitable for large, lengthy, and complex projects such as infrastructure construction projects, not for less complex and short duration projects like the three-day music festival (Thomsett, 2010).

Qualitative techniques would be more appropriate for the festival. The suitability of this approach for this project is particularly informed by the fact that risk identification will mainly be based on historical data. Past experiences can readily reveal the most common risks in such events and their possible outcomes. Qualitative risk analysis basically entails subjective evaluation of the probability and impact of the various risks on a defined scale (Meredith and Mantel, 2011). In this case, risk probability and impact will be evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 representing least likely or least impact and 5 representing most likely or most impact. The scores for probability and impact are then multiplied to determine the weight of the risk. After evaluation, measures for avoiding or minimizing the risks are then identified. Responsibilities for risk management are also assigned. Appendix 2 identifies the major risks associated with the event, their likelihood and impact, measures for avoiding or minimizing them, as well as individuals responsible for managing the risks.

Leadership and Management Plan

The success of any project is largely dependent on its effective management (Kloppenborg, 2015). Generally, project leadership and management may take the authoritative, coercive, or democratic approach (Lock, 2007). In the authoritative approach, the project manager articulates the vision of the project to the entire team, but permits team members to collaborate in coming up with solutions. This can be a great way of motivating project team members as individual contributions are valued (Meredith and Mantel, 2011). In the coercive approach, however, the project manager's directions must be followed without questioning. Though this approach minimizes the likelihood of errors, it may hinder creativity and reduce team morale. As for the democratic approach, the project manager creates an atmosphere where every team member has a voice in decision-making. Though this approach may result in time wastage due to lack of consensus, it often boosts morale among team members, and thereby success of the project.

It is important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for project management. Nonetheless, project success is usually more guaranteed when the project manager can effectively blend the various approaches (Kerzner, 2009). For instance, while democracy is important, the project manager must at the same time be authoritative enough to ensure tasks are accomplished without fail. In this case, a blend of the authoritative and democratic approach would be important. It will be important for the project manager to clearly share the vision of the project with the project team, while at the same time allowing different ideas and perspectives.

An important aspect of project leadership and management relates to the project team structure, which basically depicts the organization of the project team (Berkun, 2008). A simple structure as shown in figure 1 below will be sufficient for the event. Appendix 3.....

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