Level 6
Certificate
in
Project Management
Ing. Norman Zammit
LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Analysis of Business Needs
Section 1.1 of Unit
 Your Learning Outcome:
Be able to analyse business objectives to identify
potential projects, their feasibility and the
methodology which may be used.
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Agenda for the Section 1.1 of Unit
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What is a project, and what is project management?
Why we do need project management?
Why do we undertake a project?
What is the analysis of business needs?
What kind of data a business needs analysis review?
What are the benefits of business needs analysis?
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Definition of Project Management
 Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills,
knowledge and experience to achieve specific project objectives according
to the project acceptance criteria within agreed parameters
 Project management has final deliverables that are constrained to a finite
timescale and budget
 A key factor that distinguishes project management from just
'management' is that it has final deliverables and a finite timespan, unlike
management which is an ongoing process
 "At its most fundamental, project management is about people getting
things done.“ (Barnes, n.d)
(APM, n.d)
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Definition of Project 1/2
A NON-REPETITIVE and UNIQUE activity to create products, services or
results
 Goal oriented – it is being pursued with an end goal in mind
 Particular set of constraints – usually centred around time, quality and
resources (including finance)
 Low volume, high variety activity
 Has a defined beginning and end
 Has an element of uncertainty
 Something has been changed through the project being carried out (input
produces an output via a process)
 The most efficient way of introducing unique change:
 achieving the project objectives safely
 and within the agreed time, cost, technical, quality and other
performance criteria
LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Definition of Project 2/2
 Time, cost and quality are the building blocks of every project:
 Time: scheduling is a collection of techniques used to develop and present
schedules that show when work will be performed
 Cost: how are necessary funds acquired and finances managed?
 Quality: how will fitness for purpose (over time) of the deliverables and
management processes be assured?
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Uniqueness
Repetition
“paint by numbers”
“as… but…”
“new…”
Objective: Learn
from every project
to reduce uncertainty
Variety
Process & Outcome
LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Why Do We Need Project Management?
■ What (Scope & Quality)
■ When (Deadline)
■ How much (Finance)
■ Who (Team)
LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Why Do We Undertake a Project?
LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Business Organization Profile
 Business organisations differ from each other based on:
 Legal status/ownership (sole trader, company (limited
liability), corporation limited & unlimited, public limited
and international equivalents)
 Structure and size (tall/flat, hierarchical, functional,
divisional, matrix, hybrid; small, medium, large)
 Industry sector (private, public, not for profit; primary,
secondary, tertiary, etc.)
 What they offer? (product and/or services)
 Context (international, national, local)
 Image
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Reviewing Business Objectives
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Profit (getting and staying profitable)
Productivity of people and resources
Excellent customer service
Employee attraction and retention
Mission-driven core values
Sustainable growth
Maintaining a healthy cash flow
Dealing with change
Reaching the right customers
Staying ahead of the competition
(smallbusiness, 2019)
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Reasons for Undertaking a Project
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Problems - solve a problem
Needs - satisfy a need
Opportunities - exploit new opportunities
Legal requirements - comply with legal requirements
 Business organizations use projects to change and develop:
 Activities and processes
 Modes of operations
 Products
 Services
… to gain competitive and advantage, and respond
to new markets
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Reasons for Undertaking a Project
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Project Objectives vs. Business Objectives
 A project is about fulfilling business objectives
 “The delivery of business outcomes is realized through the
success of project, and in essence that is the way that project
management strategies drive organizational success” (Adrian
McKnight, PMP in Project Management Institute’s White
Paper)
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
How Does a Project Contribute in Achieving
the Business Objectives?
Gain competitive advantage
Add Value to the Business
Reduce risks
Reduce costs
Provide measure results
Gain efficiency (processes, activities, modes of operation,
products and services)
 Improve productivity
 Improve customer and stakeholder satisfaction
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
The Value of Projects for Business
Organizations (1)
 Implementing project management across the organization
helps create a strategic value chain that gives companies an
edge on their competitors, particularly in high-risk sectors and
markets
 Being able to deliver projects on time and within budget often
determines whether a company will get the next contract or
whether its new product hits the market
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For example, if the company wants to launch a new product
(before the competition), the project management office will
provide them with information and knowledge on how to deliver
it, how to speed the process up and how to measure results, and
what will be the financial and human resources
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
The Value of Projects for Business
Organizations (2)
 Support companies in dealing with growth and change, and
complexity by providing them with innovative solutions
 Provide the business organizations with information and
knowledge about which processes should be evaluated and
improved
 Facilitates the process of business performance and
improvement by setting clear, achievable goals that connect
your process initiatives to business value
 Facilitates the business management in general
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
How to Identify Potential Projects?
 Carry out an analysis of business needs – discover, analyse, define, and
document the requirements that are related to a specific business
objective
 Review the following business indicators:
 Operations and procedures
 Business data
 Business performance
 Market analysis
 Strategic and operational plans
 Vision, mission and strategic direction
 etc.
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
How to Identify Potential Projects?
SWOT Analysis
Strategies from the SWOT Analysis:
SW – Use your strengths to improve your weaknesses
SO – Use you strengths to win new opportunities
WT – Focus on your weaknesses against the threats
OT – Monitor your opportunities against the outside threat
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
The Value of Business Analysis
 Business analysis is the set of activities to support the delivery of solutions
that align to business objectives and provide continuous value to the
organization
 Determine problems and opportunities
 Identify business needs and recommend viable solutions to meet
these needs
 Analyse, specify, communicate and manage requirements and
other product information
 Define benefits and approached for measuring and realizing value,
and analysing results
(The PMI Guide to Business Analysis)
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Benefits of Business Analysis 1/2
 1) Ensuring recommendations presented by technical experts conform
with the needs of stakeholders
 2) Ensuring that any solutions adopted actually address pertinent business
problems by lowering business risks and breeding business value
 Business needs and requirements
 Stakeholders requirements
 System Requirements
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Benefits of Business Analysis 2/2
A business analysis should cover the following areas:
 Efficient application and implementation of new solutions by the
organisation - defining clear business requirements that fall within the
scope of the project
 Discovery of organisational requirements - can help the business reach a
better understanding of the changes that need to be in place for
continued success
 Prioritisation of business requirements - guaranteeing that shareholder
efforts focus on what matters
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Standard Operations & Procedures (SOP)
 A SOP is a procedure specific to the operation of an organization that
describes the activities necessary to complete tasks in accordance with
the industry regulations, national laws or even just an organization own
standard for running the business
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Use of SOP in PM
 Projects and operations do meet at various points during the life-cycle of a
product or service. For example when:
 Developing or changing product and services, and
 Improving operations or product development
Why SOP is important?
 Describe the activities and expected practices
 A road map for how to resolve issues
 Systemize and document all processes of operation within an organization
 Create efficiency, consistency and reliability in production and service
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Business Data
 Business data is information that is collected and stored both physically
and digitally by a business as an asset that may support strategy, decision
making and day-to-day operations
 Review of business data is helpful for spotting of trends and patterns
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Types of Business Data
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Knowledge
Product
Service
Customer
Process
Supply chain
Employee
Partner and supplier
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Market and competitor
Industry
Communications
Interactions
Transactions
Social media
Leads and opportunities
Risk
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Use of Business Data in PM
 Big data - volume, value, variety, veracity and velocity (5 Vs) offer
significant opportunities for making use of data for the benefit of projects
 The use of these data can shape the future of project management
planning and delivery in many ways, such as following:
 1. Planning and delivery – collect and analyse data across business
segments (IT, HR, logistics etc.), industries, economic sectors, regions
 2. Project team environment – collect data that include experience of
working on projects, skills, education, training programs that team
members may have attended, etc.
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Use of Business Data in PM
 3. Knowledge management – information collected is processed and
transformed in the form of knowledge
 4. Risk and Issues management – particularly relevant in developing of
new techniques and procedures for identifying, analysing, prioritizing,
monitoring and creating risk response strategies
 5. Quality management – data collected critical to develop policies,
decisions on using quality criteria, etc.
 6. Resource management – data monitor and control mechanisms for
resource utilisation
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Business Performance
 Data can provide the necessary statistics used to measure key
performance indicators which provides necessary information to make
management decisions about improvements, adjustments or
modifications to current systems or processes
 Business performance measures assesses financial or non-financial
performance in the four primary areas of:
 1. Financial
 2. Internal processes
 3. Customer
 4. Learning/growth
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Use of Business Performance in PM
 There are several types of performance data that is used to demonstrate
if a process is working, needs some adjustment and provides a high level
picture of the organization regarding:
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Operational and financial budgets
Customer satisfaction data
Improvements initiatives
Employee satisfaction
Goals – employee and business
Error rates
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Benchmarking
 Benchmarking is the process of comparing the project management
practices of your organization with the project management practices of
other organizations
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Types of Benchmarking
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Internal – comparison of a business
process to a similar process inside
the organization
Competitive – direct competitor-tocompetitor comparison of a product,
service, process, or method
Functional – comparison to similar or
identical practices within the same or
similar functions outside the
immediate industry
Generic – conceptualization of
unrelated business processes or
functions that can be practiced in the
same or similar ways regardless the
industry
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Internal Benchmarking Analysis
Benefits
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most cost efficient
relatively easy
low cost
fast
good
practice/training
with
benchmarking process
information sharing
easy to transfer lessons learned
common language
gain a deeper understanding of
your own process
makes a great starting point for
future benchmarking studies
Challenges
fosters mediocrity
limits options for growth
low performance improvement
can create atmosphere of
competitiveness
 not much of a stretch
 internal bias
 may not yield best-in-class
comparisons
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Competitive Benchmarking Analysis
Benefits
Challenges
comparing like processes
know your competition better
possible partnership
useful for planning and setting
goals
 similar regulatory issues
 difficult legal issues
 relatively low performance
improvement
 threatening
 limited by trade secrets
 may provide misleading
information
 may not get best-in-class
comparisons
 competitors could capitalize on
your weaknesses
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Functional Benchmarking Analysis
Benefits
Challenges
 provides industry trends
information
 quantitative comparisons
 better improvement rate
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diverse corporate cultures
great need for specificity
not invented here. syndrome
common functions can be
difficult to find
 takes more time than internal or
per cent
 must be able to visualize how to
adapt the best practices
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Generic Benchmarking Analysis
Benefits
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high payoff
non-competitive/nonthreatening
broad, new perspective
innovative
high potential for discovery
examines multiple industries
can compare to world
Challenges
 difficult concept
 can be difficult to identify best-inclass
 takes a long time to plan
 known world-class companies are
inundated with requests
 quantum changes can bring high
risk, escalate fear
 class organizations in your
process
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Market Analysis
 A market analysis provides information about industries, customers,
competitors, and other market variables
 Market analysis is relevant for feasibility studies and business models
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Market size
Market share
Market trends
Market segments
Customers mix
Competitors
Gap analysis
Business environmental factors
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
What is Market Analysis for?
 1. Back up your project idea with figures, data, and facts, and therefore
provide a convincing project plan
 2. Recognize market potential at an early stage and avoid making the
wrong decisions
 3. Identify any existing knowledge gaps and fill them in on time
 4. Show competing products which are already on the market
 5. Identify the market entry barrier and estimate the market
attractiveness
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Market Description/Segmentation
Start with the market description/segmentation, answering the following
questions:
 What target group is your product or service aimed at?
 What age group is your product aimed at?
 What is the average income of your target market?
 Where does your target market live?
Market segmentation:
 1. Demographic segmentation
 2. Geographic segmentation
 3. Psychographic segmentation
 4. Behavioural segmentation
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Market Size, Growth and Trends
Market Size and Growth Rate
Market Trends
 Defined through market volume
(actual demand) and market
potential (potential demand)
 Market size provides information
about the chances of market
growth
 Predict the upward or downward
movement of a market, during a
period of time
 A few techniques to predict
market trends are:
 Customer analysis
 Competitor analysis
 Risk analysis
 Marketing mix, etc.
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Market Profitability
Known as Porter’s Five Forces Strategy
 Bargaining power of customers:
 How important is your product or service for your target group?
 Bargaining power of suppliers:
 How can you react to price increases if necessary?
 Threat of substitute products and markets:
 Are there alternatives to your product or service?
 New competitors and market entry barriers:
 How high are the market entry barriers for potential competition?
 Competitors in the market:
 How high is the competition?
 Who Dominates the market?
 Which competitors are ahead and why?
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Analysis of Industry and Competition
 Define the industry
 Identify your competitors
 Determine the customers
 Key success factors
The following questions should be answered:
 How high are the revenues generated in the particular industry?
 Which company is the market leader?
 What are the current trends in the industry?
 Which innovations have been able to advance the industry?
 Who are your competitors? What products or services are they
selling?
 How much market share do they have?
 How competitive are they? Are their strengths and weaknesses the
same as yours?
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
More Strategies of Market Analysis
Distribution channels:
 Existing distribution channels
 Trends and emerging channels
 Channel power
Success factors:
 Access to essential unique resources
 Ability to achieve economies of scale
 Access to distribution channels
 Technological progress
Environmental analysis:
 External and internal factors (PESTEL analysis)
 Political, economic, social, (etc.) vs. budget, resources, etc.
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Strategic and Operational Plans
Strategic Planning
Operational Planning
 Decisions
are
fundamental,
directional, and overarching
 Long range objectives and longerterm implications
 Upper level management
 Corporate and business planning
level
 Dictate how to employ the
organization's resources to best
achieve its mission
 Decisions focuses on day-to-day
implementation of strategic
decisions
 Short-range
objectives
and
immediate implications
 Middle and lower level managers
 Functional planning level
 Dictate
tactical
plans
to
implement strategies and achieve
goals and objectives
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Strategic vs. Operational Planning
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Vision and Mission
Internally
Externally
 Guide management’s thinking on
strategic issues
 Help
define
performance
standards
 Inspire employees to work more
productively by providing focus
and common goals
 Guide employee decision making
 Help establish a framework for
ethical behavior
 Create closer linkages and better
communication with customers,
suppliers and alliance partners
 Serve as a public relations tool
 Enlist external support
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Vision and Mission vs. Project Prioritization
 Given the stated purpose and vision, what matters most to the
organization now and in the future? What are its priorities now and over
the next two to five years?
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LO1.1 Certificate in Project Management
Strategic Planning in Project Management
 Business planning – assesses how much funding your project requires,
who to go to
 Strategic planning – determines how and where funding should be spent
during the project
Strategic planning helps project management in the following areas:
 Increased project communication
 Reducing resource misallocation
 Consistent project team engagement
 Which projects are the most strategic and should be resourced to the hilt?
Which projects align with the purpose, vision, and priorities, and which
should be stopped or scrapped?
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