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Change approaches & management tools SeCtion tWo
Tools
Given the complex nature of projects, a wide range of tools is available to support their management. The most common are briefly introduced, additional information available as indicated in ‘further reading’ below.
• Work Breakdown Structures (WBS): the first step in detailed project planning, WBSs define project scope, specifying the work required and acting as a project boundary. General objectives are progressively broken down into increasingly defined areas of work, identifying the specific, detailed tasks required of individual team members.
• Milestone plan: this specifies the sequence of achievements required to build towards attainment of the final project objectives, detailing the various stages of the project.
• Responsibility chart: this details the lines of communication and responsibilities held by staff involved in the various project phases. It differentiates decision-makers, those that undertake tasks, those providing expert advice and those needing to be kept informed.
• Gantt chart: effectively combining the milestone plan and responsibility chart. Tasks are indicated according to duration, showing for each task the prior tasks required to be completed and the subsequent tasks dependent on its completion.
• Network diagram: this involves the explicit mapping of the interdependencies between tasks, to identify the critical path of activities required for the deadline to be reached.
• Risk matrix: this identifies potential adverse events which may impede project progress, plotting the likelihood of occurrence (low to high) with the potential impact to the project if the event occurs (low to high). It is designed to facilitate risk management to reduce the likelihood of occurrence or the potential impact, especially for those risks considered both likely and of high potential impact.
• Stakeholder analysis: considered earlier, this requires an assessment of the power and interest of various stakeholder groups, in order to develop management strategies as appropriate.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths of the approach include clarity of direction, transparent accountability of participants and the anticipation of problems/difficulties before they arise. These significantly improve the experience of participants throughout the life of the project. However, their utility depends upon the degree to which adequate time is spent in their preparation (which is itself a limited resource) and also their use; a plan which is not referred to during implementation is simply a waste of time.
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