黑龙江考生报名的缴费方式有哪些？应当注意什么问题？

(a) Simply defined, a project is ‘activity that has a start, a middle and an end and consumes resources’ – it is therefore a discrete
activity aimed at achieving a specific objective or range of objectives. Graham is intent on using the ‘environmentally aware’
project to achieve a specific objective – the attainment of the international environmental standard. He is, however, aware
that there are a number of internal stakeholders inside the company who question the significance of such a project.
Externally, he can point to significant stakeholders, including customers and government who are looking for CFS to become
more environmentally aware. The project is likely to have strategic and not simply operational or administrative significance
and the person appointed into the role of project manager, ideally, should have both the traditional skills associated with
project management plus those of strategic management. Grundy and Brown list the traditional project management
techniques as:

Clearly, the project manager must have the technical project management skills, being able to manage the project through its
life cycle, which involves defining the project in terms of project objectives and scope as defined by time, cost and quality.
Planning the project in terms of breaking the overall project down into separate activities, estimating the resources required
and linking activities to resources in terms of time and priorities. Implementing the plan, including reviewing the progress in
meeting time and cost objectives and taking corrective action where and when necessary. Finally, reviewing the outcomes of
the project in terms of what was delivered to the customer and the extent to which client expectations were met.
The strategic nature of the project means that the project manager must have significant leadership skills, not only of the
project team, who are likely to come from different functions and parts of the company, but also influential stakeholders inside
and outside the company. This implies they should have good ‘political’ and communication skills as the project is of strategic
significance to the company. The ability to show how this particular project fits with the overall strategy of the firm is
important. The project is an important part in the achievement of the company strategy and in CFS’s case may help it
differentiate itself from its competitors. However, the project manager must recognise that there will be resistance from existing
managers reluctant to see resources committed to projects outside of the traditional value chain of the company. Certainly,
the project manager for the ‘environmentally aware’ project will themselves need to be aware of the external environmental
pressures prompting the firm to set itself specific environmental objectives and be able to link into supportive networks and
alliances. Finally, Grundy and Brown argue that the project manager will be the key to reviewing and learning from the project,
assessing whether defined objectives were achieved, the effectiveness or otherwise of the implementation process and how
key stakeholders were managed. The danger is that projects are seen as ‘one-off’ rather than contributing to the knowledge
and learning of the organisation. There may be a significant ‘learning curve’ that the firm has to go down and look tocontinuously improve its project management process.

(b) Effective project management could have improved the conduct of the website re-design project in the following ways:
Detailed planning
During the delivery of the project the lack of a formal detailed plan means that there is no baseline for review and control.
The absence of monitoring progress against that plan is also very evident. The meetings are events where, although progress
appears to have been made, it is unclear how much progress has been made towards the delivery of the final re-designed
website. Effective project management would have mandated the production of a detailed plan. There is no mention of a
project plan, a critical path analysis, a Gantt chart or supporting project management software.
Effective monitoring and control
The board were not kept up to date about progress and were only alerted to potential issue when the finance director became
concerned about spiralling costs. This is a failure of monitoring and control, aggravated by the fact that there is no project
plan to monitor against. Effective project management would have required formal progress to the sponsor (in this case the
board). Such monitoring should lead to project control, where suggested actions are considered and implemented to deal with
project slippage. The planning, monitoring and controlling aspects of project management are completely absent from the
scenario and so none of the usual project management monitoring and reporting structures were in place to alert the board.
Mandating of substitutes
Initial progress is hampered by the absence of key personnel at meetings 3 and 4 and the inappropriate sign-off by the RP
(already discussed above) of the technical design. The requirement for the TD to produce a technical report also slows
progress. These problems could have been addressed by ensuring that substitutes were available for these meetings who
understood their role and the scope of their authority. Effective project management would have ensured that progress would
not have been delayed by the absence of key personnel from the progress meetings.
Standards for cost-benefit analysis
The cost-benefit analysis provided by the MM is flawed in two ways. Firstly, the assumptions underpinning the benefits are
not explained. There is no supporting documentation and it appears, at face value, that year four and five benefits have been
greatly inflated to justify the project. Secondly, it would be usual to discount future costs and benefits using an agreed discount
rate. This has not been done, so the time value of money has not been taken into account. Effective project management
would have defined standards for the cost-benefit analysis based on accepted practice.
Estimating, risks and quality
The reaction of the board to the cost-benefit analysis also appears unrealistic. They appear to have suggested a budget and
a timescale which does not take into account the complexity of the remaining work or the resources available to undertake
it. The estimating part of the project management framework appears to be lacking. It is clear at the final meeting that the
website will not be ready for launch. However, the MM decides to take the risk and achieve the imposed deadline and take
a chance on the quality of the software. This decision is made against the advice of his TD and without any information about
the quality of the software. Effective project management would have mandated a framework for considering the balance
between risk and quality.

The MM does not inform. the board of the TD’s advice. The MM, like many project managers (because the MM now appears
to have adopted this role) finds it politically more acceptable to deliver a poor quality product on time than a better quality
product late. Unfortunately the product quality is so poor that the decision proves to be the wrong one and the removal of the
software (and the resignation of the MM) ends the project scenario.