A feasibility study is an important tool for decision-making in project management. Accurate and adequate information about the project like technology, location, production capacity, demand, and impact on existing operations, cost and benefits to the company, time span for execution, resources needed should be included in the report. Alternatives if any should also be suggested. Feasibility Study in Project Management can be defined as: “A tool for transforming the initial project- A tool for transforming the initial project-idea into a idea into a specific hypothesis of intervention, through the identification, the specification and the comparison of two or more alternatives directed to achieve the defined objectives, by producing a set of information helping the Project manager to take the final decision” Market research or demand analysis, technical viability studies, financial or commercial feasibility studies are other wise known as functional or support studies to aid the decision-making. A preliminary feasibility Continue reading
Project Management
Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)
The Project Management Institute (PMI) published a standard called Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) under the stewardship. For Organizations, the main purpose of the OPM3 standard is to presents an approach to explain an organizational project management and to assess the maturity of the project against a broad-based set of Organizational project management best practices. Organizational Project Management (OPM) is used to achieve or complete the goals of the Organization by means of projects. Organizational project management is the utilization of skills, techniques, knowledge, and tools to project and organizational activities. In Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3), the term “Organization” is not limited to an agency, company or society but it applies to a group which is aiming to use their material in the OPM3 standard. It illustrates business strategies and gives regulations and high-level perspective of resources which straightly influence financial consequences of organizations if it is Continue reading
Typical Project Financing Models
Besides Build Operate Transfer (BOT) and Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) models, some typical project financing models are there. They are: Build Own Operate (BOO) Model: In BOO, the concessionaire constructs the facility and then operates it on behalf of the public agency. The initial operating period {over which the capital cost will be recovered} is defined. Legal title to the facility remains in the private sector, and there is no obligation for the public sector to purchase the facility or take title. The private sector partner owns the project outright and retains the operating revenue risk and all of the surplus operating revenue in perpetuity. As an alternative to transfer, a further operating contract {at a lower cost} may be negotiated. Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) Model: Under this approach, the responsibilities fro designing, building, financing and operating are bundled together and transferred to private sector partners. They are Continue reading
Project Risk Management
Risk can be defined as uncertainty of outcome, whether positive opportunity or negative impact. Some amount of risk-taking is inevitable, whatever the project. There has to be a deliberate acceptance of some degree of risk because the value to the business makes it worthwhile. Project risk management includes the processes concerned about conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis (both qualitative and quantitative), responses, and monitoring and control on a project; most of these processes are updated throughout the project. Risk management in projects involves identifying and assessing the risks in terms of impact and probability, establishing and maintaining a joint risk register, agreed by the integrated project team, establishing procedures for actively managing and monitoring risks throughout the project and during occupation on completion, ensuring that members of the team have the opportunity to engage in a dialogue that will promote agreement of an appropriate allocation of risk, updating risk Continue reading
Term Loans as a Project Financing Method
Project financing may be defined as the raising of funds required to finance a capital investment proposal which is economically separable. The assets, contracts cash flows are separated from the parent company and the assets acquired for the projects serve as collateral for loans. The repayments are made from the revenue generated from the projects. Also, the lending institution has to ensure that the investment on the proposed project will generate sufficient returns on the investments made and that loan amount disbursed for the implementation of the project will be recovered along with interest within a reasonable period of time. Term loans are meant for tying up the capital cost of the project. The primary source of such loans is financial institutions. Commercial banks also provide term finance in a limited way. The financial institutions provide project finance for new projects as also for expansion/diversification and modernization, whereas the bulk Continue reading
Project Constraints
A project should possess identifiable goals and a definite starting and finishing point. Project goals must be defined clearly. A useful checklist can be developed in relation to project success criteria. Criteria may be hard and concerned with what the project should achieve, or soft when they will cover how the project should proceed. The major constraints on the completion of projects are time, resource availability and the need to achieve the required standard of performance/quality for the project. This is also known as Project Management Triangle. Each of these project constraints is linked to the other two. If one or more of the constraints is changed, the remaining ones will also be changed. For instance, decreasing the budget/cost of a project is likely to lengthen its schedule or force the creation of a new, more restrained quality. Or an increase in quality generally results in an Continue reading