Tag: International Finance Mumbai University BMS Notes

Risk management is the practice of identifying, evaluating, and preventing or mitigating risks to a project that have the potential to impact the desired outcomes. Project managers are typically responsible for overseeing the risk management process throughout the duration of a given project.

Project risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to any risk that arises over the life cycle of a project to help the project remain on track and meet its goal. Risk management isn’t reactive only; it should be part of the planning process to figure out risk that might happen in the project and how to control that risk if it in fact occurs.

A risk is anything that could potentially impact your project’s timeline, performance or budget. Risks are potentialities, and in a project management context, if they become realities, they then become classified as “issues” that must be addressed. So risk management, then, is the process of identifying, categorizing, prioritizing and planning for risks before they become issues.

Risk management can mean different things on different types of projects. On large-scale projects, risk management strategies might include extensive detailed planning for each risk to ensure mitigation strategies are in place if issues arise. For smaller projects, risk management might mean a simple, prioritized list of high, medium and low priority risks.

To effectively manage risk, project managers must have a clear understanding of their objectives so they can identify any possible barriers that could impact the team’s ability to produce results.

Types of Project Risk

Beyond the basics of what “risk” means, project managers should also know the different types of risks they may encounter. Depending on the project type, the factors that should be considered will differ.

There are several types of risks that occur frequently, regardless of the specifics of the project. These common types of risk include:

• Cost: The risk of events that impact the budget, especially those that cause the project to be completed over budget. Errors in cost estimation commonly generate risk in addition to external factors.
• Schedule: The risk of unplanned scheduling conflicts, such as events that cause the project to be delayed. Scope creep is a common reason for scheduling issues and project delays.
• Performance: The risk of events that cause the project to produce results that are inconsistent with the project specifications.

Risk Management Process

Risk owners require several skills to manage project risk well, which include:

• Communication: Having the ability to communicate well with stakeholders, so that everyone understands the role they play in reducing the impact of risk.
• Strategic thinking: Being strategic and having the ability to problem solve and come up with solutions for the project risks identified.
• An understanding of the organisation: Knowing the businesses’ strategic direction, goals and risk appetite.
• Planning: Ensuring that the risk management plan is being actioned throughout the project lifecycle.
• Resourcefulness: Being quick to act under pressure to ensure that the project risks are addressed as soon as possible.

Risk Analysis & Identification

Identify and assess the potential risks

When it comes to identifying and assessing the potential risks related to the project, consider how a risk could occur, what the impact would be and what you can do to reduce the probability and impact (if you can) of the project risk. Understanding how much control you have over the risk is key. For some risks, you may have very little control over them. Keep in mind that along with identifying risk events, as mentioned above you should also list any project risks that can be identified as opportunities or uncertainty related to the project. Risk events and opportunities are often easier to identify as they have clear impacts, whereas uncertainty can be harder to measure as the result of a risk is unknown and is difficult to measure.

Assign a risk owner

Whether it is a dedicated risk manager, or a member of the project team, every project will need a risk owner assigned to keep track of risks throughout the project lifecycle. The risk owner is the key person who manages the risk management strategy. This doesn’t mean that the risk owner must address every risk that could impact the project, however, instead they have the responsibility of assigning ownership to team members and stakeholders, as well as updating and keeping track of the risk management plan. If you’re the risk owner, it’s key to make sure that every member of the team is aware of their role in reducing and mitigating project risk.

Draw on subject matter experts

As part of your risk management strategy in project management it is essential to touch base with subject matter experts, such as contractors and senior stakeholders. Receiving input from others will help ensure you have crossed off all the potential project risks, as you may find that others have insights into risks you may not have discovered on your own. They can also provide advice on effective strategies they have implemented in previous projects, that you could integrate into your risk management plan. Also see if your organisation has risk registers from past projects completed available to review and any lessons learned reports.

Determine the probability of a project risk occurring

Once you have a list of the possible risks, the next step in your project risk assessment is ranking the risks by assigning probability. That way you will know which risks are more likely to occur and which would have the largest impact on your project. The risks that you measure that will have the highest impact, should be addressed first. There are many different formulas for measuring risk, however one of the popular ways is assigning a number to the risk.

Consider the action you will take

Once you have all the project risks ranked according to the probability of the risk occurring, the next step will be planning out the actions you will take. With some risks you may be able to eliminate them entirely, however others may need to follow a mitigation strategy.

Include risk Management in your post project review

Just as one project comes to an end, you may find yourself handed your next project, leaving little time for a post project review. However, the greatest learnings can come from analyzing how your project went, including the risk management. So, when the project comes to an end, take the time to evaluate what went well on the project, what could have been handled better and the learnings you can you take with you to your next project.

Managing Risk throughout the Organization

Building a risk management protocol into your organization’s culture by creating a consistent set of standard tools and templates, with training, can reduce overhead over time. That way, each time you start a new project, it won’t be like having to reinvent the wheel.

Things such as your organization’s records and history are an archive of knowledge that can help you learn from that experience when approaching risk in a new project. Also, by adopting the attitudes and values of your organization to become more aware of risk, your organization can develop a better sense of the nature of uncertainty as a core business issue. With improved governance comes better planning, strategy, policy and decisions.

A cost-benefit analysis is a systematic process that businesses use to analyze which decisions to make and which to forgo. The cost-benefit analyst sums the potential rewards expected from a situation or action and then subtracts the total costs associated with taking that action. Some consultants or analysts also build models to assign a dollar value on intangible items, such as the benefits and costs associated with living in a certain town.

Before building a new plant or taking on a new project, prudent managers conduct a cost-benefit analysis to evaluate all the potential costs and revenues that a company might generate from the project. The outcome of the analysis will determine whether the project is financially feasible or if the company should pursue another project.

In many models, a cost-benefit analysis will also factor the opportunity cost into the decision-making process. Opportunity costs are alternative benefits that could have been realized when choosing one alternative over another. In other words, the opportunity cost is the forgone or missed opportunity as a result of a choice or decision. Factoring in opportunity costs allows project managers to weigh the benefits from alternative courses of action and not merely the current path or choice being considered in the cost-benefit analysis.

By considering all options and the potential missed opportunities, the cost-benefit analysis is more thorough and allows for better decision-making.

The Cost-Benefit Analysis Process

A cost-benefit analysis should begin with compiling a comprehensive list of all the costs and benefits associated with the project or decision.

The costs involved in a CBA might include the following:

• Direct costs would be direct labor involved in manufacturing, inventory, raw materials, manufacturing expenses.
• Indirect costs might include electricity, overhead costs from management, rent, utilities.
• Intangible costs of a decision, such as the impact on customers, employees, or delivery times.
• Opportunity costs such as alternative investments, or buying a plant versus building one.
• Cost of potential risks such as regulatory risks, competition, and environmental impacts.

Advantages:

• Higher revenue and sales from increased production or new product.
• Intangible benefits, such as improved employee safety and morale, as well as customer satisfaction due to enhanced product offerings or faster delivery.
• Competitive advantage or market share gained as a result of the decision.

An analyst or project manager should apply a monetary measurement to all of the items on the cost-benefit list, taking special care not to underestimate costs or overestimate benefits. A conservative approach with a conscious effort to avoid any subjective tendencies when calculating estimates is best suited when assigning a value to both costs and benefits for a cost-benefit analysis.

Finally, the results of the aggregate costs and benefits should be compared quantitatively to determine if the benefits outweigh the costs. If so, then the rational decision is to go forward with the project. If not, the business should review the project to see if it can make adjustments to either increase benefits or decrease costs to make the project viable. Otherwise, the company should likely avoid the project.

The Purpose of Cost-Benefit Analysis

The purpose of cost-benefit analysis in project management is to have a systemic approach to figure out the pluses and minuses of various paths through a project, including transactions, tasks, business requirements and investments. The cost-benefit analysis gives you options, and it offers the best approach to achieve your goal while saving on investment.

There are two main purposes in using CBA:

• To determine if the project business case is sound, justifiable and feasible by figuring out if its benefits outweigh costs.
• To offer a baseline for comparing projects by determining which project’s benefits are greater than its costs.

Limitations of the Cost-Benefit Analysis

For projects that involve small- to mid-level capital expenditures and are short to intermediate in terms of time to completion, an in-depth cost-benefit analysis may be sufficient enough to make a well-informed, rational decision. For very large projects with a long-term time horizon, a cost-benefit analysis might fail to account for important financial concerns such as inflation, interest rates, varying cash flows, and the present value of money.

Alternative capital budgeting analysis methods, including net present value (NPV), could be more appropriate for these situations. The concept of present value states that an amount of money or cash in the present day is worth more than receiving the amount in the future since today’s money could be invested and earn income.

One of the benefits of using the net present value for deciding on a project is that it uses an alternative rate of return that could be earned if the project had never been done. That return is discounted from the results. In other words, the project needs to earn at least more than the rate of return that could be earned elsewhere or the discount rate.

However, with any type of model used in performing a cost-benefit analysis, there are a significant number of forecasts built into the models. The forecasts used in any CBA might include future revenue or sales, alternative rates of return, expected costs, and expected future cash flows. If one or two of the forecasts are off, the CBA results would likely be thrown into question, thus highlighting the limitations in performing a cost-benefit analysis.

Efficient Investment Analysis

Investment analysis is a broad term for many different methods of evaluating investments, industry sectors, and economic trends. It can include charting past returns to predict future performance, selecting the type of investment that best suits an investor’s needs, or evaluating individual securities such as stocks and bonds to determine their risks, yield potential, or price movements. Investment analysis is key to a sound portfolio management strategy.

The aim of investment analysis is to determine how an investment is likely to perform and how suitable it is for a particular investor. Key factors in investment analysis include the appropriate entry price, the expected time horizon for holding an investment, and the role the investment will play in the portfolio as a whole.

In conducting an investment analysis of a mutual fund, for example, an investor looks at how the fund performed over time compared to its benchmark and to its main competitors. Peer fund comparison includes investigating the differences in performance, expense ratios, management stability, sector weighting, investment style, and asset allocation.

Determining Financial Needs for Projects

Add up costs

One-time costs may include such items as legal and professional costs for incorporating or registering your business; starting inventory; licence and permit fees; office supplies and equipment; long-term assets, such as machinery, a vehicle or real estate; consulting services; and website design.

Recurring expenses will include such items as salaries, rent or lease payments, raw materials, marketing costs, office and plant overhead, financing costs, maintenance and professional fees.

Once you’ve determined your initial and follow-on expenses, you will need to estimate how much money you will have at your disposal.

Calculate your financial resources

Estimate how much starting capital you will have and the amount of revenue you’ll be able to generate each month during the start-up period. To calculate the latter, research your potential market and industry averages to come up with realistic numbers.

Now, plug your estimated financial resources and your estimated expenses into a set of financial projections for your business. A quick examination of your projections will show if you’ll have a financial shortfall.

When you have educated yourself on what entails in the market, it’s time to determine what you will be spending on. Starting a business comes with a lot of expenses. Some of these are one- time costs and others may be recurring expenses. Examples of one-time costs include:

• Cost of registering and licensing your business. Getting the appropriate and legal backing is essential for the long-term of the business.
• Cost of Equipment. These are the machinery that will produce a bulk of your services.
• Office supplies
• Vehicle for transportation
• Office/Production Space

On the other hand, recurring expenses will include:

• Maintenance fees that will ensure your machine framework is functioning properly.
• Salaries for your workers. Whether you start with two employees or twenty, you need to have resources to pay them when due.
• Lease payments. If you lose your production space, your business suffers a great deal. It is extremely necessary to do all you can to maintain that space.
• Marketing costs are also recurring expenses. You will need to consistently get your product into the market by advertising through various means. You may use marketers or media.
• Cost of basic materials that you would be using should also be put into consideration.

Project financing: Advantages:

1. Non-Recourse: The typical project financing involves a loan to enable the sponsor to construct a project where the loan is completely ‘non-recourse’ to the sponsor, i.e., the sponsor has no obligation to make payments on the project loan if revenues generated by the project is insufficient to cover the principal and interest payments on the loan. In order to minimize the risks associated with a non-recourse loan, a lender typically will require indirect credit supports in the form of guarantees, warranties and other covenants from the sponsor, its affiliates and third parties involved with the project.
2. Maximise Leverage: In a project financing, the sponsor typically seeks to finance the cost of development and construction of the project on a highly leveraged basis. Frequently, such costs are financed using 80 to 100 percent debt. High leverage in a non-recourse project financing permits a sponsor to put less in funds at risk, permits a sponsor to finance the project without diluting its equity investment in the project and, in certain circumstances, also may permit reductions in the cost of capital by substituting lower-cost, tax-deductible interest for higher-cost, taxable returns on equity.
3. Off-Balance-Sheet Treatment: Depending upon the structure of project financing, the project sponsor may not be required to report any of the project debt on its balance sheet because such debt is non-recourse to the sponsor. Off-balance-sheet treatment can have the added practical benefit of helping the sponsor comply with covenants and restrictions relating to borrowing funds contained in other indentures and credit agreements to which the sponsor is a party.
4. Maximize tax benefit: Project financings should be structured to maximize tax benefits and to assure that all possible tax benefits are used by the sponsor or transferred, to the extent permissible, to another party through a partnership, lease or other vehicle.

Impact of Leveraging on Cost of Finance

Taking on debt, as an individual or a company, will always bring about a heightened level of risk due to the fact that income must be used to pay back the debt even if earnings or cash flows go down. From a company’s perspective, the use of financial leverage can positively or sometimes negatively impact its return on equity as a consequence of the increased level of risk.

Impact on Return on Equity

Return on equity is the rate of return on the shareholders “Equity of a company’s common stock owners. It measures a firm’s efficiency at generating profits from every unit of shareholders’ equity. Return on equity shows how well a company uses investment funds to generate earnings growth. It can be calculated using the following equation:

ROE = Net Income (After Tax) / Shareholder Equity

Leverage, Risk, and Misconceptions

The most obvious risk of leverage is that it multiplies losses. Due to financial leverage’s effect on solvency, a company that borrows too much money might face bankruptcy during a business downturn, while a less-levered company may avoid bankruptcy due to higher liquidity. There is a popular prejudice against leverage rooted in the observation of people who borrow a lot of money for personal consumption, for example, heavy use of credit cards. However, in finance the general practice is to borrow money to buy an asset with a higher return than the interest on the debt. Instead of spending money it doesn’t have, a company actually creates value. On the other hand, when debt is taken on for personal use there is no value being created, i.e., no leveraging.

There is also a misconception that companies enter a higher level of financial leverage out of desperation, referred to as involuntary leverage. While involuntary leverage is certainly not a good thing, it is typically caused by eroding equity value as opposed to the addition of more debt. Therefore, it is typically a symptom of the problem, not the cause.

Combining Operating and Financial Leverage

Operating and financial leverage can be combined into an overall measure called “Total leverage.” Total leverage can be used to measure the total risk of a company and can be defined as the percentage change in stockholder earnings for a given change in sales. In other words, total leverage measures the sensitivity of earnings to changes in the level of a company’s sales.

Methods For Finding Total Leverage

Total leverage can be determined by a couple of different methods. If the percentage change in earnings and the percentage change in sales are both known, a company can simply divide the percentage change in earnings by the percentage change in sales. Earnings can be measured in terms of EBIT, earnings before interest and taxes, or EPS, earnings per share. While EBIT can be determined by referencing a company’s income statement, we can determine earnings per share by dividing the company’s net income by it’s average price of common shares.

TL = {(Revenue – Variable Costs) / Operating income} * Operating Income / Net Income

A feasibility study is an assessment of the practicality of a proposed project or system. A feasibility study aims to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing business or proposed venture, opportunities and threats present in the natural environment, the resources required to carry through, and ultimately the prospects for success. In its simplest terms, the two criteria to judge feasibility are cost required and value to be attained.

A well-designed feasibility study should provide a historical background of the business or project, a description of the product or service, accounting statements, details of the operations and management, marketing research and policies, financial data, legal requirements and tax obligations. Generally, feasibility studies precede technical development and project implementation. A feasibility study evaluates the project’s potential for success; therefore, perceived objectivity is an important factor in the credibility of the study for potential investors and lending institutions. It must therefore be conducted with an objective, unbiased approach to provide information upon which decisions can be based.

Benefits of a Feasibility Study

There are several benefits to feasibility studies, including helping project managers discern the pros and cons of undertaking a project before investing a significant amount of time and capital into it. Feasibility studies can also provide a company’s management team with crucial information that could prevent them from entering into a risky business venture.

Feasibility studies also help companies with new business development, including determining how it will operate, potential obstacles, competition, market analysis, and the amount and source of financing needed to grow the business. Feasibility studies aim for marketing strategies that could help convince investors and banks that investing in a particular project or business is a wise choice.

TELOS is an acronym in project management used to define five areas of feasibility that determine whether a project should run or not.

• T – Technical: Is the project technically possible?
• E – Economic: Can the project be afforded? Will it increase profit?
• L – Legal: Is the project legal?
• O- Operational: How will the current operations support the change?
• S – Scheduling: Can the project be done in time?

Importance of Project Feasibility

The importance of a feasibility study is based on organizational desire to “get it right” before committing resources, time, or budget. A feasibility study might uncover new ideas that could completely change a project’s scope. It’s best to make these determinations in advance, rather than to jump in and to learn that the project won’t work. Conducting a feasibility study is always beneficial to the project as it gives you and other stakeholders a clear picture of the proposed project.

Benefits of conducting a feasibility study:

• Improves project teams’ focus
• Identifies new opportunities
• Provides valuable information for a “go/no-go” decision
• Narrows the business alternatives
• Identifies a valid reason to undertake the project
• Enhances the success rate by evaluating multiple parameters
• Aids decision-making on the project
• Identifies reasons not to proceed

Apart from the approaches to feasibility study listed above, some projects also require other constraints to be analyzed:

• Internal Project Constraints: Technical, Technology, Budget, Resource, etc.
• Internal Corporate Constraints: Financial, Marketing, Export, etc.
• External Constraints: Logistics, Environment, Laws, and Regulations, etc

Features of a feasibility study for a good project

A project feasibility study evaluates the following topics in project management:

• Time: How long do you think it’ll take to finish?
• Risk: What are the dangers of finishing this project? Based on the predicted rewards, is the risk worth the company’s money and time?
• Legality: Is the company well-equipped to complete the project in terms of technical resources?
• Budget: Is the organisation financially capable of completing the project, and does the cost-benefit analysis justify proceeding?
• Operational Feasibility: Is the project addressing the organization’s needs in its intended scope by resolving issues and/or capturing opportunities?
• Technical capability: Is the company well-equipped to complete the project in terms of technical resources?

Scope of Project Feasibility

Need Analysis

The realization of the need of the project is indicated in this head. This identified need may influence the company itself, another company, the government or public. The need is confirmed and evaluated by conducting preliminary study. A proposal is then developed that specify that how the need may be satisfied.

Process Work

The preliminary analysis performed to ascertain what will be needed to fulfil the need is included in the process work. The consultant who is an expert in the project area may perform the work. System models or prototypes are mostly involved in the preliminary study. The general characteristics of the process can be illustrated by using artist’s conception and scaled down models for technology oriented projects. The forecasting of the result before the starting of the actual project can be carried out by the simulation of the proposed system.

Engineering and Design

A thorough technical study of the proposed project is involved in this. Written quotations are got from subcontractors and suppliers as required. The capabilities of the technology are evaluated as required. If required, the product design must be performed at this time.

Cost Estimate

The estimation of project cost to an acceptable level of accuracy is included in this category. At this level of a project plan, levels of around -5% to +15% are common. Cost estimation includes both the initial & operating costs. Cost estimate document should also contain estimates of capital investment and of recurring and non-recurring costs. The sensitivity of the project plan to the estimated cost values is also viewed by conducting sensitivity analysis on the estimated cost values.

Financial Analysis

The analysis of the cash flow profile of the project is included in financial analysis. This analysis should contain sources of capital, rates of return, payback periods, inflation, breakeven points, sensitivity and residual values. It is important analysis in which it is ascertained that either the funds are available or not and also when the funds will be provided to the project. The economic and financial feasibility of the project is supported with the help of the project cash flow profile.

Project Impacts

The assessment of the impact of the proposed project is provided by this portion of feasibility study. Social, environmental, cultural, economic and political impacts may be some of the factors that how public views the project. The value added capacity of the project must also be evaluated. On the basis of the cost of the raw material used in manufacturing product and the price of the product, a value added tax can be evaluated. The tax so gathered can be considered as a contribution to government pockets.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The entire outcome of the project feasibility analysis should be covered in the ending portion of the project feasibility analysis. This may reflect the rejection or endorsement of the project. This portion of feasibility report must contain the recommendations on what should be done.

Technical aspects relate to the production or generation of the project output in the form of goods and services from the projects inputs. Technical analysis represents study of the project to evaluate technical and engineering aspects when a project is being examined and formulated. It is a continuous process in the project appraisal system which determines the prerequisites for meaningful commissioning of the project.

Purpose of Technical Analysis

• In order to find out the most suitable and optimal structure of the project in terms of technology, location etc.
• The primary purpose of conducting technical analysis is to find out the technical feasibility of the project. It’s done to know whether all the inputs required to set up the project are available or not.
• Deciding from all available alternatives which will be the best option for the organisation.

Use of Various Informational Tools for Analyzing

Choice of Technology/Manufacturing Process:

Firstly the component associated with technical analysis is the choice of technology or the choice of the manufacturing process. The several factors which influence the choice of technology are:

• Plant Capacity: Also known as the production capacity is the number of units that can be produced in a specific also period of time.
• Principal Inputs: These inputs used to make final products and constitute at least 10% of the cost of material.
• Investment Outlay and production costs: Investment outlay is the cost incurred to acquire an asset or execute a strategy similarly production cost are the business costs involved in the production process.
• Use by other units: The technology adopted should prove to be successful earlier by other existing units.
• Ease of adoption and modernization must be an important factor while making a choice for technology.

Technical Arrangements:

This aims to make arrangements to obtain the technical know-how needed to conduct the proposed production process.

• Price of the technology in terms of infrastructure and licensing fee.
• Suitable modes of payment available must be available.
• Collaboration time of the agreement.
• Benefits from research and development services.
• Process and Performance guarantees of the technology.

Raw Material: In short it is the basic material which upon processing is converted into the final product. It is basically of four types:

• Agricultural products: Field crops, fruits, vegetables, rice, wheat etc.
• Mineral products: Industrial rocks, minerals, clays, sand, gravel, talc, ceramics, paints etc.
• Live Stock and forest products: Farm animals, sheep, horses, goats, pigs, dyes, wood, paper, rubber etc.
• Marine Products: Fish, corals, bacteria, sponges, seashells, crabs etc.

Product Mix

It is also known as product assortment is the total range of products offered by the company. Market requirements guide the choice of product mix.

While planning the production facilities some flexibility in product mix should be thought in accordance with the technical aspects.

It is an important area in technical analysis. It must aim to satisfy a broad range of customers and to do so it must be compatible with other available resources.

Plant Capacity:

Plant capacity also known as the production capacity is the number of units that can be produced in a specific period of time or can be called the maximum output rate of production.

FNC (feasible normal capacity): The capacity achievable under normal working conditions and on the other hand NMC (Nominal maximum capacity- capacity achievable technically or the installed capacity

Following factors have bearing on the plant capacity decision:

• Technological requirement
• Input constraints
• Investment cost
• Product Mix
• Latest Developments
• Ease of absorption
• Auxiliary Materials & Factory Supplies
• Processed Industrial Materials & Components
• Period of collaboration & Assistance provided
• The continuing benefit of R&D work being done
• Market conditions
• Resources of the firm
• Government Policy

Factors influencing the Choice of site location:

• Proximity to the source of raw materials: so the location must be close to the area from which raw material is to be acquired.
• Proximity to markets: for instance, the markets in which the product will sell must be close to the production site and flow of goods must be smooth.
• Availability of infrastructure: infrastructure must be available and suitable in order to conduct operations at that location.
• Government policies: above all the government restrictions must be minimum.
• Other factors: for example the climatic conditions, general living conditions, ancillary units, pollution.

Advancement in the Era of E- Commerce in Project Management

Ecommerce projects are one of the most challenging of all kinds of software projects, owning to the nature of the project itself. With integrated and inter-organisational nature, ecommerce projects have a faster development cycle time and a pressing need for an effective strategy at every phase of the project to deal with the problems.

• Package Selection: The hardest challenge of picking the right software vendor and the package solution from a plethora of options.
• Business Intelligence: Techniques and procedures to obtain the required information about the company’ s competitors, customers, their requirements and all the other internal business processess.
• Customer Relationship Management: The ability to learn how to treat each customer and his requirement as an important individual.
• Process Improvement: Aligining the organization’s operations with its strategic objectives with a goal to improve products and services.
• Human-Resource Management: Hiring and managing the skilled people and do the best to avoid any kinds conflict & project obstacles.

Tactics:

Set clear trackable goals with compelling metrics

Though almost every e-commerce project will have the ultimate goal of selling more products, it’s unfortunately common for a business to forget entirely about setting specific goals.

A bad project manager might decide that it’s worth carrying out some influencer marketing, then simply assume that it was worth it if the influencer in question gets a lot of hits for the relevant content.

Monitor and track the use of time

E-commerce businesses often rely on remote working and flexible hours because they’re ideally suited to them, and they’re great for productivity. That said, they’re somewhat harder for monitoring.

This is a problem because time is a precious resource, and it’s hard to manage a team effectively when you don’t know where time is being wasted.

Think of virtual assistants. Do you know how they’re using the time you’ve paid for? This is what Timeneye was designed to help with. Get everyone in your business operating on the same page and tracking their time in the same way. You can then look through the time logs to determine exactly where time is being lost through inefficiency, and start making changes.

Choose the right e-commerce business tools

Because so much of an online business takes place through digital systems (and even in the cloud), it’s mission-critical that you base your company on the right foundations.

Choose well, and you can scale your business smoothly, keep your team ticking along, and cut down on wasted costs through automation.

Ideally, every e-commerce business would run on a simple and scalable CMS like Shopify, allowing the hosting to scale with massive growth. It would use tools like Timeneye to track time, and use a project management tool like Basecamp to keep all relevant files and notes in one location.

Never stop iterating and testing

You plan a project, implement it, achieve the goal (or goals), and move on. That’s how most people would operate in most instances, but ecommerce is a different beast. There, very few projects are ever truly finished. Instead, they’re iterated. You plan some website updates, get them drafted, run them as A/B variants to see how they perform, then go right back to planning. Optimizely has some great options for product teams.

Why? Because there’s no such thing as a perfect store, or a perfect product listing, or a perfect checkout service. There’s always something that could improve. Couple in the aforementioned variability of e-commerce tactics, and you have all the reason you’d ever need to keep going with the improvements and never stop.

Use a scaling budget to account for change

Creating a small business budget is a mandatory part of running and growing a sustainable business, because you’ll always need to be investing and reinvesting in your business.

One problem that comes up a lot with e-commerce is that a budget that seemed right to begin with can become a problem it can suddenly become too little, or even too much.

This is down to two things: old methods becoming more or less effective (such as SEO tactics losing potency after Google algorithm changes), and sales fluctuating massively. If you happen upon a hit product, you might suddenly have an opportunity to make a lot of money from it, but only if you can budget for it.

Market Feasibility

Market feasibility must not be mixed up with economic feasibility. The potential influence of market demand, competitive activities, and available market share should be considered in the market feasibility analysis. During the start-up, ramp-up, and commercial start-up phases of the project, possible competitive activities (local, regional, national and international) should be analyzed for early contingency funding and impacts on the operating costs.

• Type of industry
• Prevailing market
• Future market growth
• Competitors and potential customers
• Projection of sales

Technical Feasibility

The engineering feasibility of the project is viewed in the technical feasibility. Certain important engineering aspects are covered which are necessary for the designing of the project like civil, structural, and other relevant aspects. The technical capability of the projected technologies and the capabilities of the personnel to be employed in the project are considered.

In certain examples especially when projects are in third world countries, technology transfer between cultures and geographical areas should be analyzed. By doing so productivity gain (or loss) and other implications are understood due to the differences in fuel availability, geography, topography, infrastructure support, and other problems.

Financial Feasibility

Financial feasibility must be differentiated from economic feasibility. The ability of the project management to raise sufficient funds required to implement the proposed project is included in the financial feasibility. Additional investors and other sources of funds are considered by the project proponents for their projects in many cases.

In such situations feasibility, sources, soundness, and applications of these project funds may be a hindrance. Other aspects of financial feasibility should also be viewed, if appropriate, like creditworthiness, loan availability, equity, and loan schedule. The implications of land purchase, leases, and other estates inland are also reviewed in the financial feasibility analysis.

• Initial investment
• Resources to procure capital: Banks, investors, venture capitalists
• Return on investment

Economic Viability

Economic feasibility refers to the feasibility of the considered project to produce economic benefits. A benefit-cost analysis is needed. Furthermore, the economic feasibility of a project can also be evaluated by breakeven analysis. In order to facilitate the consistent basis for the evaluation, the tangible and intangible facets of a project must be translated into economic terms. Economic feasibility is critical even when the project is non-profit in nature.

This evaluation typically includes a cost-benefit analysis of the project, which aids firms in determining the project’s viability, cost, and benefits before spending financial resources. It also acts as an objective project review, boosting project credibility by assisting decision-makers in identifying the proposed project’s beneficial economic benefits to the organisation.

Safety Feasibility Study

Another important aspect that must be considered in project planning is safety feasibility. Safety feasibility involves the analysis of the project in order to ascertain its capacity to implement & operate safely with the least unfavorable effects on the environment. Mostly in complex projects, environmental impact assessment is not properly addressed.

Political Feasibility Study

The directions for the proposed project are mostly dictated by political considerations. This is certainly correct for large projects with potential visibility that may have important political implications and government inputs. For example, regardless of the merit of the project, the political necessity may be a source of assistance for a project.

Operational Feasibility

This evaluation entails conducting research to evaluate whether and to what extent the organization’s needs can be addressed by completing the project. Operational feasibility studies also look at how a project plan meets the requirements specified during the system development requirements analysis phase.

Cultural Feasibility Study

The compatibility of the proposed project with the cultural environment of the project is included in the cultural feasibility. Planned operations should be integrated with the local cultural beliefs and practices in labor-intensive projects. For example, what a person is willing to perform or not perform is influenced by his religious beliefs.

Social Feasibility Study

The effect that a proposed project may have on the social system in the project environment is addressed in the social feasibility. It may happen that a particular category of employees may be short or not available as a result of ambient social structure.

Project initiation is the first phase of the project management life cycle and in this stage, companies decide if the project is needed and how beneficial it will be for them. The two metrics that are used to judge a proposed project and determine the expectations from it are the business case and feasibility study.

The term “Project initiation” comes from a five-phase model created by the Project Management Institute (PMI). PMI outlines this model in their Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, also known as the PMBOK® Guide.

Important

• Take major decisions that establish the direction and resource requirements, like the project charter and selecting the project stakeholders, are made during this phase. The stakeholders arrive at a clear objective to ensure everyone stays on the same page in terms of how the project should proceed.
• There will be multiple checks during and after project execution to prevent miscommunication and to ensure the project stays on track throughout its course. However, precious time and resources might get wasted which is undesirable.
• Effective project management requires you to maximize benefits and minimize costs while delivering ‘value’ to the customer. Having a clear project objective helps you achieve all this.

 The model divides a project’s lifecycle into these five stages:

• Project initiation: Broadly define your project and secure buy-in.
• Project planning: Create detailed goals and a project roadmap.
• Project execution: Launch your project using information from the first two steps.
• Project performance: Measure effectiveness using key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Project closure: Debrief with stakeholders.

Steps:

Creating a business case

The business case is an important document that explains how the project’s goals align with the company’s long-term plans. This document explains why should the company spend its technical, financial, and human resources on the specific project.

An ideal business case does not talk about any technical details of the project and focuses solely on the business aspects. It is made to convince the upper management to approve the project and answer their concerns related to possible financial and business-related risks.

Conducting a feasibility study

After the approval of the business case, the next step is to determine the likelihood of the project’s success after considering all the factors. This study identifies the high-level project constraints and assumptions of the project and decides whether the project is worth it or not.

Establishing a project charter

The project charter is perhaps the most comprehensive and important part of the project initiation process. It answers the 3 Ws to identify the scope/objective, team members, and the possible timeframe of the project.

The charter is, in some ways, the first document of the project that identifies the necessary details like the goals and the constraints of the project. It also identifies the project scope and lists the required resources for the completion of the project.

Identifying stakeholders and making a stakeholder register

Communication and negotiations are a huge part of effective project management and a large part of a project manager’s time is usually spent dealing with project stakeholders.

It’s the responsibility of the project manager to ensure the means and frequency of communication in project management with project stakeholders according to their influence and interest in the project. A common practice is to maintain a stakeholder register or a stakeholder map to decide the frequency and means of communication for each stakeholder according to their influence and interest in the project.

Assembling the team and establishing a project office

No project can be started without a project team. Assembling a working project team and assigning them roles and responsibilities is a vital part of the project initiation phase. Assigning roles and responsibilities early on also increases the overall accountability of the entire team and can help you as a manager in the later phases of the project life cycle.

Final review

After performing everything, it’s a good practice to review the entire project initiation stage to ensure you missed nothing. In later stages, you’ll continue reviewing your work as monitoring and controlling is one of the five phases of the project management life cycle.

A Project Management life cycle is a five-step framework planned to assist project managers in completing projects successfully.

The primary competency of a project manager is to gain a thorough understanding of project management stages. Knowledge and planning for the five Project Management steps will help you plan and organize your projects so that it goes off without any hitches.

Stages:

Initiating: Defining what needs to be done

Initiating, the first phase of the project management life cycle, is all about kicking off a project with your team and with the client, getting their commitment to start the project. You bring together all of the available information together in a systematic manner to define the project’s scope, cost and resources. The goal of the initiation phase is to take a loose brief of a project and define it in terms of what it needs to do and achieve in order to be successful.

That usually necessitates identifying the project stakeholders and making sure they all share the same perception of what the project is and agree on the business case the problem that the project is trying to solve. It’s during project initiation phase too that you decide whether it is feasible to deliver the business case. As a project manager, you will need to conduct adequate research to determine the goals of the project, and then propose a solution to achieve them. Once approved, you move on to the next of the project phases.

Planning phase: Defining how to do what needs to be done

After approval to proceed from initiation, you can begin project planning. This is arguably the most critical of the phases of project management. Get it wrong, and you’ll scupper your chances of delivering the project on time and budget. Planning is where you define all the work to be done and create the roadmap that you follow for the remainder of the project to get you there. It’s during planning phase that you figure out how you’re going to perform the project and answer the questions what exactly are we going to do, how are we going to do it, when are we going to do it, and how will we know when we’re done?

At this point in the project life cycle, you take the goals of the and expand on those goals to decide how to attain them. It’s worth keeping evaluating those goals with three criteria: what’s Possible, Passionate, and Pervasive?

• Possible: Strive for something that is achievable. Ask yourself, does this solution match the budget? Does my team have the ability to do this? Do we have enough time? Setting unrealistic goals is setting yourself up for failure.
• Passionate: Projects are tough, so you want a team that is emotionally engaged in the project. Ask yourself, Is this a project that your team can be passionate about? Is it something that can bring them together to collaborate to achieve the same goal? Even though it might be their job to do what you tell them to do, no one is going to invest into something they don’t think is worthwhile
• Pervasive: Does this have the potential to become a ground-breaking success? Is this something that is a complete solution to the problem that was given to you or is it really just a band-aid temporary or partial solution? Does it have the potential to be improved on, developed and to become a permanent way of working?

Executing: Making a project happen

This is the part of the project management life cycle where you finally get to execute on your awesome project plan it’s where planning gets turned into action. You bring your resources onboard, brief them, set the ground rules, and introduce them to one another. After that, everyone jumps in to perform the work identified in the plan.

As the project manager, you shift from talking about a project and creating documentation to get the green light to proceed with the project execution to leading the team and managing them toward delivery. You’ll spend your time in briefings, meetings, and reviews to lead the team, and keep the project on track as it moves through the project development lifecycle.

Monitoring & Controlling: Keeping a project on track

This is one of the toughest areas in the project management cycle. In parallel with the project execution, as a project manager, you report performance, and monitor and control the project. That means monitoring the project life to ensure the project is going according to plan, and if it isn’t, controlling it by working out solutions to get it back on track. In reality, a project manager is monitoring and controlling a project in some way throughout all of the project life cycle phases.

First, that means ensuring you capture the data (usually derived from timesheets and tasks completed) to track progress effectively against the original plan. Secondly, it means taking the data and comparing the task completion, budget spend and timeline allocated in the original plan. By comparing the plan against actuals, you can establish whether or not you’re hitting the objectives for timeline, cost, quality and success metrics.

Closure: Ending a project

In this final phase of the project management life cycle, your project is essentially over and your job as project manager on the project comes to a close. But the project’s not over yet check out our article on How to manage a project when it’s over. At this point, before everyone forgets, it’s useful to hold a meeting post project review or post-mortem to discuss the strengths and weaknesses or the project and team, what went wrong and what didn’t go so well, and how to improve in the future.

This can be one of the most rewarding stages of project management, as it’s a great opportunity to recognize and acknowledge valuable team members and celebrate the successes. At the same time, taking the time to make a report outlining learnings and actionable advice can help you do better in your next projects. Use writing tools to help you convey your ideas clearly.

Planning Cycle

The Planning Cycle brings together all the aspects of planning a one-off, medium-sized project into a single, coherent process.

The essential activities include the following:

• Encouraging diverse participation: Planning activities provide an opportunity for input from different functions, departments, and people. Some organizations establish planning committees that intentionally include people from diverse backgrounds to bring new perspectives into the planning process.
• Maintaining organizational focus: Defining specific goals requires managers to consider the vision, mission, and values of the organization and how these will be operationalized. The methods and selected goals can demonstrate that the vision, mission, and values statements are working documents that are not just for show but prescribe activities.
• Empowering and motivating employees: When people are involved in developing plans they will be more committed to the plans. Allowing diverse input into the planning cycle empowers people to contribute and motivates them to support the outcomes.

Stages:

Define objectives

The first, and most crucial, step in the planning process is to determine what is to be accomplished during the planning period. The vision and mission statements provide long-term, broad guidance on where the organization is going and how it will get there. The planning process should define specific goals and show how the goals support the vision and mission. Goals should be stated in measurable terms where possible. For example, a goal should be “to increase sales by 15 percent in the next quarter” not “Increase sales as much as possible.”

Develop premises

Planning requires making some assumptions about the future. We know that conditions will change as plans are implemented and managers need to make forecasts about what the changes will be. These include changes in external conditions (laws and regulations, competitors’ actions, new technology being available) and internal conditions (what the budget will be, the outcome of employee training, a new building being completed). These assumptions are called the plan premises. It is important that these premises be clearly stated at the start of the planning process. Managers need to monitor conditions as the plan is implemented. If the premises are not proven accurate, the plan will likely have to be changed.

Evaluate alternatives

There may be more than one way to achieve a goal. For example, to increase sales by 12 percent, a company could hire more salespeople, lower prices, create a new marketing plan, expand into a new area, or take over a competitor. Managers need to identify possible alternatives and evaluate how difficult it would be to implement each one and how likely each one would lead to success. It is valuable for managers to seek input from different sources when identifying alternatives. Different perspectives can provide different solutions.

Identify resources

Next, managers must determine the resources needed to implement the plan. They must examine the resources the organization currently has, what new resources will be needed, when the resources will be needed, and where they will come from. The resources could include people with particular skills and experience, equipment and machinery, technology, or money. This step needs to be done in conjunction with the previous one, because each alternative requires different resources. Part of the evaluation process is determining the cost and availability of resources.

Plan and implement tasks

Management will next create a road map that takes the organization from where it is to its goal. It will define tasks at different levels in the organizations, the sequence for completing the tasks, and the interdependence of the tasks identified. Techniques such as Gantt charts and critical path planning are often used to help establish and track schedules and priorities.

Determine Tracking and Evaluation methods

It is very important that managers can track the progress of the plan. The plan should determine which tasks are most critical, which tasks are most likely to encounter problems, and which could cause bottlenecks that could delay the overall plan. Managers can then determine performance and schedule milestones to track progress. Regular monitoring and adjustment as the plan is implemented should be built into the process to assure things stay on track.

Master Production Scheduling

A master production schedule (MPS) is a plan for individual commodities to be produced in each time period such as production, staffing, inventory, etc. It is usually linked to manufacturing where the plan indicates when and how much of each product will be demanded. This plan quantifies significant processes, parts, and other resources in order to optimize production, to identify bottlenecks, and to anticipate needs and completed goods. Since a MPS drives much factory activity, its accuracy and viability dramatically affect profitability. Typical MPSs are created by software with user tweaking.

Due to software limitations, but especially the intense work required by the “master production schedulers”, schedules do not include every aspect of production, but only key elements that have proven their control effectivity, such as forecast demand, production costs, inventory costs, lead time, working hours, capacity, inventory levels, available storage, and parts supply. The choice of what to model varies among companies and factories. The MPS is a statement of what the company expects to produce and purchase (i.e. quantity to be produced, staffing levels, dates, available to promise, projected balance).

The MPS translates the customer demand (sales orders, PIR’s), into a build plan using planned orders in a true component scheduling environment. Using MPS helps avoid shortages, costly expediting, last minute scheduling, and inefficient allocation of resources. Working with MPS allows businesses to consolidate planned parts, produce master schedules and forecasts for any level of the Bill of Material (BOM) for any type of part.

A master production schedule may be necessary for organizations to synchronize their operations and become more efficient. An effective MPS ultimately will:

• Give production, planning, purchasing, and management the information to plan and control manufacturing.
• Tie overall business planning and forecasting to detail operations.
• Enable marketing to make legitimate delivery commitments to warehouses and customers.
• Increase the efficiency and accuracy of a company’s manufacturing.
• Rough cut capacity planning.

MPS issues:

• Width of the time bucket
• Planning horizon
• Rolling plan
• Time fencing
• Schedule freezing