Operational and Project Management
Operational and Project Management
This domain tests whether you can design reliable operations and deliver projects against scope, time, cost and quality. The exam expects control mechanisms, not optimistic plans.
Core rules and concepts
- Operations compete on quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. Trade-offs must be explicit.
- Process improvement uses PDCA for iterative control, Lean to remove waste, and Six Sigma to reduce variation.
- Projects are temporary and produce a unique output; programmes coordinate related projects; business-as-usual is ongoing.
- The triple constraint links scope, schedule and cost, with quality as the outcome. Change one and the others move.
- A RACI clarifies who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed. One person should be accountable per activity.
- The critical path is the longest dependent sequence and determines minimum duration. Float is the slack on non-critical tasks.
- Risk registers record probability, impact, owner and response: avoid, reduce, transfer or accept. An issue is a risk that has already happened.
- PRINCE2 suits governed stage-gate delivery; Agile suits uncertain requirements and iterative learning.
Worked example A three-day delay hits a critical-path task. A weak response crashes every task. A stronger response checks float: a parallel task has five days' float, so it can absorb no delay but can be rescheduled to release a specialist. The manager models expediting cost against milestone impact, updates the risk register and informs the sponsor. Reasoning: protect the critical path and the milestone, not every activity.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing projects, programmes and business as usual.
- Planning without baselines or change control.
- Gold-plating scope without approval.
- Logging realised problems as risks.
- Using Agile as an excuse for no governance.