Case Study:

Building a Project Management culture

A Project Management Office - usually shortened to just 'PMO' - is a department or group within the company dedicated to implementing and improving project management practices.

The PMO accomplishes this by defining and maintaining standards for every project undertaken by the company. Its goal is to use the learnings from past projects, best practices, and case studies to improve the success rate of all future initiatives.

It is important to understand that the PMO is not involved in the day-to-day management of projects (that's the project manager's job). Rather, it acts as a support centre for project managers, giving them transparency, documentation, and governance guidance. All of this must be aligned to the vision, mission and operational strategy of Grounded (Pty) Ltd.

You have recently been appointed as a project manager in the PMO at Grounded (Pty) Ltd. Although you are new to the position, you often have to advise colleagues and managers on general aspects relating to project management in a business portfolio environment in the company.

Source: Fictitious case developed by A Knipe

Question:

The project schedule provides a logical organisation of the tasks, resources and relationships associated with the project in a graphical format.

Critically discuss the nature and objectives of a project schedule. Refer to the common scheduling methods (Critical Path Method) and techniques in your discussion. 20 marks

Note: use the CPM only in your answer and provide a 20 marks worth answer.