Only one slide in project management

Jad Jdaa

Alia Chraibi

EU Business School

Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 Project Overview 2 2.1 Project Description & Objectives 2 2.2 Assumptions & restrictions 3 2.3 Project Scope 3 2.3.1 Inclusion 3 2.3.2 Exclusion 4 3.0 Project Stakeholders 4 3.1 Key Stakeholders 4 3.2 Stakeholder Matrix 5 3.3 Stakeholder expectation management 5 4.0 Conclusion 6 References 7

The initiation phase of a project is one of the crucial phases that include the definition of the project context and scope. This would set the boundaries of the project that would be further used as the standards for a detailed project plan to follow (Alwaly and Alawi 2020) (Verzuh and American Psychological Association 2021). The stakeholder identification and management strategy is another key aspect of this as it would help to strategize the key requirements of the project during the project planning. The current report has covered both of these aspects of the ESC congress project for this year.

The overall context of the project is to organise the annual ESC Congress (a conference) for this year. It is an annual conference of the ESC (Cardiological Association of Europe) organized for the knowledge exchange and advances of the cardiology field across Europe. Currently, Barcelona is awarded the venue contract till 2030 for the conference organised as a partnership between universities & the local authority as a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model. The current project plan is the focusing on planning the ESC congress for the current year starting from the organization till the event execution. The key objectives of the current project are:

· To develop well-organized teams and committees (organizing committee, Scientific committee & organizing team)

· To conduct the pre-conference activities efficiently to be well prepared for the conference prior to the event

· To maintain the time constraint for the event and ensure that it is a success from the academic perspective as well

· To organize the event successfully on the event days

There are some critical constraints that are associated with the project considering the key objectives and scope of the ESC congress. Firstly, the event venue is fixed under the contract, i.e., Barcelona. Further, there is a time constraint of the project as it is an annual event. The event needs to be helpful within the latest quarter and at most 6-7 months prior to the event; the location, date and times are required to be fixed to be launched on the web page of the ESC congresses. Apart from all these, all the time slots and the conferences are needed to be planned and organized well before the event. Also, there needs to be a well-established partnership in between the local authority and the joint academic association of the University (Fashina, Abdilahi and Ibrahim 2020). In addition, the policies and procedures of the ESC need to form the guidelines of the event to be followed as the standards of procedures.

As the key constraints and scopes of the project are well investigated, it is now time to understand the key scopes & objectives of the project (Derenska 2018). The scope definition of the project would be as follows:

· To finalize the ever location event location and the date & time at most 6-7 months prior to the event

· To develop the project team with a well-organized structure and team organization along (organizing committee, scientific committee & organizing team)

· To maintain the website for the event by providing the finalized event plan 6-7 months prior to the event

· To prepare the attendees list and conferences (and conference agenda) to be conducted and finish the attendee's program 2-3 months prior to the event

· To handle the payment process through the congress website

· To receive and approve (or reject) the conference works and organize plenary sessions

· To conduct the congress on the two days of the event, ensuring all the aimed objectives of each of the project teams (organizing committee, scientific committee & organizing team)

· Catering is not included in the project team services and will be outsourced

· Intended conference holder candidates need to provide own works with their own responsibility within the deadline and must comply with the decision of the scientific committee

As the project context is visited in the process of the project initiation phase, it is also required that the key stakeholders of the project are defined (Nguyen, Mohamed and Panuwatwanich 2018). This would help in analysing the key requirements and expected outcomes of the project during the project plan so that the resource planning can be conducted as well. The key stakeholders of the project are as follows:

Internal Stakeholders:

· Local city government (Barcelona) (the project owner)

· Local Universities (the project owner)

· ESC (the project owner)

· Project manager

· Project teams – organizing committee, scientific committee & organizing team

External Stakeholders:

· Participants – cardiologists, university professors, representatives (research centres and pharmacy companies)

· The community (as a benefactor from the advances achieved from the ESC congress)

Table 1.a: Stakeholder Matrix

Table 1.b: Power/Interest grid used

(Source: Created by Author)

Table 2: Expectation management strategy

(Source: Created by Author)

The detailed scopes and objectives defined in the project are hence needed to be followed by the final plan of the project as the key standards. Furthermore, the key stakeholders and the engagement strategies to be followed for each of them are also well established, as can be seen in the matrices presented above.

Alwaly, K.A. and Alawi, N.A., 2020. Factors affecting the application of project management knowledge guide (PMBOK® GUIDE) in construction projects in Yemen. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 9(3), pp.81-91.

Derenska, Y.M., 2018. Project scope management process.

Fashina, A.A., Abdilahi, S.M. and Ibrahim, A., 2020. The significant factors that influence the choice of project scope management practices in telecommunication companies in Somaliland1.

Nguyen, T.S. and Mohamed, S., 2018. Stakeholder management in complex projects. In The 7th World Construction Symposium (pp. 497-506).

Smolennikov, D.O. and Pavlenko, D., 2020. Stakeholder approach to project management (Doctoral dissertation, Sumy State University).

Verzuh, E. and American Psychological Association, 2021. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK Guide.