Project Scope Management For Organizing An Academic Conference On Entrepreneurship And Business Management Essay.

Task 1: Project scope statement

Project scope management is defined as a process that assists in proper identification as well as documentation of proper list of project tasks, goals, deliverables as well as budget for the project. If the scope is defined correctly in the initiation phase of the project, it becomes quite easier for the project team to manage and make the needed changes (Ifeanyi 2019). The scope statement for the academic conference project is mainly showcased in the below table.

Project Name: Organizing an academic conference on the topic of “The Entrepreneurship and Business Management 2022”.
Project objectives: The objectives of the project are as follows: · To organize an academic conference for focussing on the topic “The Entrepreneurship and Business Management 2022”. · To aware students regarding the importance of entrepreneurship and business Management 2022 so that they can come up with new ideas on business and entrepreneurship; · To organize a prize-giving ceremony for identifying the candidate who showcases the best entrepreneurship and business management ideas for the year 2022.
Deliverables: The deliverables of the project are as follows: · Hardcopy of invitation card; · Presentation on entrepreneurship and business management; · Budget for the academic conference; ·  Prize distribution; · Providing parking facility; · Snacks and drinks;
Technical requirements: The technical requirements of the project are as follows: · Projector · Desktop · Mouse · Hard disk · RAM
Milestone: The milestone for the project is listed in the table below, along with the date of completion for each milestone.
Task	Date to complete	Task	Date to complete
Milestone 1: Getting approval for conference	29/03/22	Milestone 3: Completion of conference	07/04/22
Milestone 2: Finishing planning phase	06/04/22	Milestone 4: Completion of academic conference	08/04/22
Limitation & Exclusions: · The sitting arrangements are only available to around 250-300 guests, which is considered a limitation. · The venue is not spacious, and if more than 300 people enter the venue, it will become very much congested.

A WBS is considered a method that assists in proper execution of the project work. Additionally, it is also considered as a PM tool that takes a stepwise approach for finishing large projects into smaller components so that it can integrate scope, cost as well as deliverables (Sutrisna, Ramanayaka and Goulding 2018).

The main purpose of using a WBS is that it helps in reducing the complicated activities to a lesser complicated group of tasks which is identified to be significant for the project manager as they can manage the tasks much more efficiently, which further helps in the successful execution of the project (Elsye, Latief and Sagita 2018). The tasks are identified to be quite measurable and much more independent with properly defined limits such that the work of the project can be accomplished successfully within the time and budget that is planned for the project.

 It is identified that functional breakdown was used for creating the WBS for the project that focuses on organizing the academic conference of the project. The functional breakdown is considered as one of the structured, modular breakdowns of each and every function that further helps in performing a particular generic mission (Ikarwitaza, Riantini and Latief 2021).

 The functional breakdown of the project is done by categorizing the entire work of the project in phases such that the project work gets executed successfully during the progress of the project. A functional breakdown defines the process steps that are needed to be taken in order to deliver each of the deliverables of the project quite well. Additionally, functional breakdown also determines various types of work disciplines, which are mainly involved in working on different types of project deliverables quite well (Supriadi et al. 2018).

The work breakdown structure for organizing an academic conference on entrepreneurship and business management is mainly provided below.

 

Figure 1: WBS

(Source: Created by Author)

 A Gantt chart is identified as a PM tool that helps in proper scheduling and planning of projects of various sizes even if they are identified to be useful for simplification of the project work. The Gantt chart is mainly used to help the project team properly plan the work around the project deadline and further allocate proper resources within the project (Palombarini and Martínez 2021).

 A network diagram provides a graphical representation of the undertaken project that further comprises of different series which are connected with boxes as well as an arrow in order to elaborate the dependency of each of the activities of the project. A network diagram is mainly used as it helps in allowing the project managers to properly track each of the project elements for quickly sharing the project status (Ahmad 2020).

Task 2: Work breakdown structure

 The WBS that is developed is used for developing the Gantt chart and the network diagram. All the identified tasks are auto-scheduled, and then the duration for each of the activities is estimated, which is followed by assigning dependencies and resources to each of the project activities (Robles 2018). After assigning the resources, the Gantt chart is extracted from the Gantt chart view in the Microsoft Project, whereas the Network diagram is extracted from the Network diagram view.

The critical path is considered as a technique that assists in allowing to determine the tasks which are necessary for the successful completion of the project.

A critical path within the project is generally determined by successful identification of the longest stretch of activities by successfully measuring the project time that is required by each of those activities from starting till the completion phase (Mahardika et al. 2019).

 

Figure 2: Gantt chart

(Source: Created by Author)

Figure 3: Network diagram

(Source: Created by Author)

 According to PMI, a project stakeholder is an individual, an organization or a group who may either be affected or may affect a particular decision, activity or outcome of the project. Stakeholders are needed in the project as they can provide constraints or requirements that are mainly based on information from the industry. This will further help an individual in understanding the risks of the project quite well (Pedrini and Ferri 2019). The more the stakeholders are involved or engaged, the more they will be helpful in uncovering and minimizing the risks that are associated with the project.

An individual who vested interest within a company and can either be affected or affect business operations or performance can be a stakeholder of a project. Stakeholders who are involved in a project can be categorized as either internal stakeholders or external stakeholders.  It is identified that internal stakeholders are the ones who generally have a very much high level of interest within the work of the company with the help of direct investment, direct relationship, ownership and employment. In contrast, the stakeholders who are categorized as external stakeholders generally work for the company; however, they are somewhat affected by the outputs as well as actions of the business (Xia et al. 2018). Typical stakeholders of a project include the project manager, project planner, suppliers, government, customers and many more.

 It is identified that in order to undertake the academic conference project, the stakeholders who are needed are mainly listed below for proper reasons.

• Project manager: The project manager takes the responsibility of managing, executing, planning the entire work of the project. Additionally, the project manager also guides the project team leaders for successfully undertaking the academic conference that was organized.
• Event manager: Event managers are the individuals who plan as well as organize the academic conference event so that the students can successfully present the ideas on entrepreneurship and business management quite well (Nguyen, Mohamedand Panuwatwanich 2018).
• Business consultants:The business consultants are present during the academic conference so that they can analyze the best entrepreneurship and business management topics and can use them in their business.
• Chef:The individuals are available for preparing the snacks and drinks that will be served to the guests who are available for the academic conference.
• Organizer:The organizers are the stakeholders who take responsibility for the planning, properly organizing and directing of the academic conference project while making sure that the projects are on time, on budget and within scope (De Oliveira et al. 2019).
• Project sponsor: The sponsor provides funding for the project and further helps the project team to successfully manage the academic conference on entrepreneurship and business management for the year 2022.
• Project planner: The project planners are the individuals who create a proper set of plans for guiding the team through proper implementation as well as closure phases of the project.
• Students: The students are the individuals who will present different types of entrepreneurship and business management ideas for 2022 in the academic conference that was organized.

 The stakeholders who are involved in the academic conference project can be managed properly by using the theory or framework of stakeholder management. According to Wuni and Shen (2020), a stakeholder matrix is considered as a project management tool that is mainly utilized for analyzing the stakeholders of a project for determining different types of actions that are identified to be important as well as necessary for aligning them with the goals of the project. It is stated by Lehtinen, Aaltonen and Rajala (2019) that stakeholder mapping is identified to be essential for the success of the entire project as it helps in successfully managing the expectations of the project. Proper engagement with the key stakeholders further helps the project managers in getting proper and valuable insights.

Task 3: Gantt chart and network diagram

 It is identified that proper stakeholder analysis with the help of a stakeholder matrix assists in effective alignment among the project stakeholders on the project goals and plans. It further helps in determining which of the people are involved during the entire project and who can be able to bring these people together from kick-off till the closure phase of the project for achieving the strategic objectives as well as project plans. Proper stakeholder analysis is needed so that each of the team members can easily fit into the project for realizing the key persons of the organization, which further help in addressing the conflicts as well as issues quite early within the project (De Oliveira and Rabechini Jr 2019). Furthermore, a stakeholder map further helps in understanding which of the stakeholders generally have high and as well as low impact on the entire project. Additionally, it also showcases the level of interest of each of the stakeholders in the project work.The stakeholder matrix for managing the stakeholders related to the project is generally showcased in the matrix that is given below. As per the below figure, the project stakeholders are mainly categorized as per their power and level of interest within the project.

Figure 4: Stakeholder matrix

(Source: Created by Author)

A project risk is defined as an uncertain event that generally may or may not occur during the project progress. It is also defined as the exposure of the project stakeholders to the consequences of different variations in the outcome of the project (Urba?ski, Haque and Oino 2019). It is identified successful identification of risks during the initial phase of the project is quite necessary to prepare the entire team regarding the negative or positive impacts that the risk will create on the project so that the project team can handle the situation well and the execution of the project does not get obstructed.

 The risks that occur during the progress of the project can either be managed in a qualitative way or in a quantitative way. According to Mishchenko et al. (2018), qualitative risk management is considered as a key component for the risk professionals that helps in proper prioritization of risks for helping the project teams for achieving the outcomes of the project quite successfully. By utilizing these particular techniques, the project would generally have a greater chance of delivering it within the assumed time and budget quite well. It is stated by Rodríguez-Rivero et al. (2020) quantitative risk management is considered as a procedure that helps in converting the risks of the project into proper numerical terms, and it is identified that those numerical terms help in determining both the cost and time contingencies related to the project. Additionally, qualitative risk assessment generally focuses on the measurable as well as pre-defined based data, whereas a qualitative risk assessment is generally dependent on subjectivity as well as knowledge of the assessor.

 The risks that occur during the academic conference project is mainly showcased in the table below:

Risks	Description	Impact	Probability
Schedule slippage	If the project does not follow the project plan that is prepared for the project, then it becomes quite difficult to be on track, and as a result, the project experiences schedule slippage, and as a result, it would become quite challenging to meet the deadline of the project.	High	Likely
Budget shortfall	The total budget that is assumed for the academic conference project is not sufficient, so it becomes quite difficult for managing the total project budget and thus, the entire project experiences financial issues during the project progress. Lack of budget causes a financial burden on the project team to meet all the objectives of the project.	Extreme	Very Likely
Inexperienced organizers	The organizers who are hired for handling the academic conference are not experienced, then it will be quite difficult for them to handle the conference well, and as a result, it becomes quite difficult to achieve the objectives of the project.	High	Possible
Lack of space	The venue that is selected for the conference is small then, it would be quite difficult to arrange a seating facility for all the stakeholders, which can create a lot of problems for the stakeholders.	Medium	Possible

Task 4: Stakeholder management

		Impact
		Negligible	Minor	Medium	High	Extreme
Probability	Very likely					Budget shortfall
	Likely				Schedule slippage
	Possible			Lack of space	Inexperienced organizers
	Unlikely
	Rare

The risks that occur during an academic conference on business entrepreneurship and business management for the year 2022 are identified. However, all the risks that are identified need to be managed well with the help of proper risk management strategies. Risk management strategies generally help in providing correct ideas to the team members, and as a result, they get to know proper steps that they generally have to take in order to mitigate each of the risks or uncertainties that mainly occurs during the project (Micán, Fernandes and Araújo 2020). The strategies that are defined for each of the risks that are identified are mainly listed in the table below.

Risks	Management strategies
Schedule slippage	The schedule that is prepared during the planning phase of the project must be tracked regularly for avoiding schedule slippage and for accomplishing all the objectives of the project within the deadline that is assumed. It also helps in maintaining quality while organizing conferences for the students so that the project team does not need to compromise with the quality of the project in order to meet the academic conference date.
Budget shortfall	The total budget that is assigned for the project must be used efficiently during the project such that the chances of budget shortfall during the entire project generally get reduced. Additionally, extra expenditure must be cut off during the progress of the project for avoiding financial hurdles.
Inexperienced organizers	The organizers who are needed for the academic conference project must be experienced so that they can be able to organize the academic conference quite well. Additionally, experienced staff are also needed for handling uncertain situations during the progress of the project.
Lack of space	The guests must be invited as per the sitting capacity. This is mainly needed for avoiding congestion within the venue due to the presence of more people than the capacity of the venue.

 Project evaluation is determined as an assessment of a ongoing or a finished project. The main aim of the project evaluation is to properly determine the relevancy as well as the level of achievement in context to the project objectives, development-based effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability as well as impact (Massarella, Sallu and Ensor 2020).

Proper evaluation is needed for making proper decisions which further pushes an opportunity for the application as well as for the mid-course corrections, which helps in maximizing the success of the project. Additionally, the outcomes of the evaluation generally help in providing benefits to the undertaken project so that the proper future-based initiatives can be undertaken with the help of the project (Habibi et al. 2018). Furthermore, it is identified that evaluation helps in providing a very much systematic way for studying the programs, intervention, practice, as well as initiatives for properly understanding how well it helps in achieving the objectives of the project.

 Evaluation could happen at regular intervals during the entire life of the project for building up a clear picture regarding the progress as well as the impact of the project.

The project is evaluated by successfully assessing an ongoing project by effectively gathering data during the different project stages. The project evaluation can be done by using methods that are mainly elaborated below:

• Analyzing status report:The status report that is prepared during the project needs to be reviewed at a regular interval for evaluating the project progress and ensuring the percentage of work that is mainly completed during the project (Tavana et al. 2020).
• ROI:The project is also evaluated by analyzing the profit that is expected to achieve from the project, and it is mainly calculated with the help of ROI. Furthermore, ROI is also utilized as the most important criterion for the evaluation of the investment project.

The different types of key success factors which are used for successfully evaluating the project are mainly elaborated below:

• Time:If the academic conference project is on track and the project evaluation report reflects that it will be completed within the assumed timeline, then the project would be considered successful. Time is considered to be very much crucial in measuring the success of the project (Brown et al. 2018).
• Cost:The project cost that is assigned in the academic conference project is another one of the major success factors. If the project gets accomplished within the budget that is allocated, then it generally means that the project will be accomplished as per the objectives quite successfully.
• Quality:If, during the conference, proper quality is maintained in setting up the conference, then the project would be considered successful as it is one of the major factors that influence the business icons (Anysz and Buczkowski 2019).
• Performance of the students: If the students successfully come up with innovative as well as entrepreneurship and business management related ideas for the year 2022, then it will attract the business icons who are invited as guests, and they will show their interest in the project. This is identified as an important factor that measures the success of the academic conference that is mainly organized.

 The success factor for the Norther Estate programme is successful refurbishment as well as the development of a Grade I, Grade II and Grade III listed building in the Whitehall so that it would provide proper office space for the house of commons (Constructiondigital.com 2022). The project would be evaluated based on the success criteria, and the project would be identified to be successful if the refurbishment, as well as development, was undertaken successfully within the assumed time and budget.

The academic conference project would be evaluated by analyzing or assessing the status report of the project as well as the ROI of the project. Analyzing the status report of the project reflects that the project which is undertaken is running as per the project plan, and thus the chances of schedule slippage is quite low. Additionally, effective and proper tracking of the schedule suggests that the project will get completed as per the assumed deadline (Callistus and Clinton 2018). Furthermore, ROI is also one of the methods with the help of which the ROI of the academic conference project is evaluated. The calculated ROI of the project showcases that project is profitable, and it will bring some positive impacts on the progress as well as for the success of the project.

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