ITM501 MoD 2 Case SLP - Essay Example

The Project Management Skills: An Analysis The Project Management Skills: An Analysis Introduction The science of project management revolves around three concepts that are timeliness, quality and a specific goal with budget constraints (Conrad & Sireli, 2005). A project is, however, defined as a venture that has to be completed in a predefined time period with an approval of the sponsor (Koskela & Howell, 2002). The project management is rated high on the scale of riskiness because it is meant to bring something new and test its applicability in a limited scope.

After success at a limited scope the concept can be produced in masses in the form of commercialized products in the international market (Ward & Chapman, 2003). The projects may include development of a simple computer program or they may get complex as much as launching a space mission for Mars. The project management’s general parameters remain the same regardless of the complexity and scope of project at hand (Huchzermeier & Loch, 2001). Nevertheless, the project leader has to have skills such as team leadership, understanding of group dynamics, sensitivity to human needs and willingness to take action in an uncertain situation and ability to use planned behavior.

Analysis of Project Management Skill Set The project based organizations are increasing in number as projects are believed to be cost effective. It is because they are short-lived and their expenses are well planned (Anbari, 2003). The organizations in 21st century are using temporary projects to accomplish their short term goals and when a particular set of objectives is completed, the resources are allocated to another venture (Engwall & Jerbrant, 2003). Thus, the same set of resources is used in order to complete more than one project.

In this way, the notion of economic use of resources can be implemented in a practical sense (White & Fortune, 2002). Following are the skills that are required to become an effective project management in the modern world. 1. Knowledge about Technology: The use of technology is an integral part of modern day project management (Wysocki, 2007) and, therefore, it is quite imperative for the project manager to understand integration of existing and new technologies while working on the project.

The days when GANTT charts and network diagrams were built on sheets are long gone and nowadays computers have taken over structured decision making. 2. Identifying Knowledge Gap: Humans cannot know each and everything but it is their willingness to learn new things that kept the course of humanity’s evolution steady. Nevertheless, project managers are suggested to create a decentralized management setup in order to induce employees to share their knowledge that will help the top management in filling the knowledge gap without admitting their ignorance (Packendroff, 1995). 3. Ability to Manage Administrative Tasks: The project managers should have immense level of experience in general management (Ibbs & Kwak, 2000).

It is because it will help them in getting adequate understanding of making unstructured decisions during project management. 4. Leadership Skills: The project managers are required to make decisions in uncertain situations that require them to base their decisions on instincts and face the possibility of a failure with courage (Sterman, 1992). 5. Organizational Skills: The project managers must understand the project to a fuller extent while having the ability to communicate the objectives as well.

Additionally, the project manager must also assign work to each and every team member according to his or her skill set (Atkinson, 1999). The tendency to divide work into various phases is also considered vital in project management. 6. Communication Skills: The project managers also require effective communication abilities to get things done while demonstration of authority and power would not be bad idea to keep the project on course at times (Soderlund, 2004). 7. Honesty: The project managers should keep their teams well informed with the progress of the projects (Munns & Bjeirmi, 1996) because if team members have sufficient information, they can modify their work accordingly. 8. Positive Outlook: The project managers must have a positive and optimistic viewpoint of the progress.

This attribute will assist the team-members to gain confidence while doing their jobs. Furthermore, it is suggested not to overreact to the mistakes people commit and project head should help them in correcting their problems via working closely (Pich, Loch, & Meyer, 2002). 9. Perception: The project managers ought to have the strength to foresee a problem and work towards controlling it before its happening (Pich, Loch, & Meyer, 2002). In simple terms, he or she should follow a proactive approach towards problem solving.

Project Management Skill Set Assessment Following is the table showing my ratings about various skills needed for project management: Skill Self-Assessment Second View Importance Knowledge about Technology 5 3 A Identifying Knowledge Gap 8 5 A Ability to Manage Administrative Tasks 7 9 C Leadership Skills 10 9 A Organizational Skills 9 8 B Communication Skills 6 9 A Perception 9 7 B References Anbari, F. (2003). Earned Value Project Management Method and Extensions. Project Management Journal Vol 34(4) , pp.12. Atkinson, R. (1999). Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria.

International Journal of Project Management Vol 17(6) , pp.337-342. Conrad, J., & Sireli, Y. (2005). Learning Project Management Skills in Senior Design Courses. 35th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference. Indianapolis. Engwall, M., & Jerbrant, A. (2003). The resource allocation syndrome: the prime challenge of multi-project management? International Journal of Project Management Vol 21(1) , pp.403-409. Huchzermeier, A., & Loch, C. (2001). Project Management Under Risk:Using the Real Options Approach to Evaluate Flexibility in R&D.

Management Science Vol 47(1) , pp.85-101. Ibbs, C., & Kwak, Y. (2000). Assessing Project Management Maturity . Project Management Institute Vol 31(1) , pp.32-43. Koskela, L., & Howell, G. (2002). The underlying theory of project management is obsolete. Proceedings of the PMI, (pp. pp.293-302.). Munns, A., & Bjeirmi, B. (1996). The role of project management in achieving project success. International Journal of Project Management Vol 14(2) , pp.81-87. Packendroff, J. (1995). Inquiring into Temporary Organization: New Directions for Project Management Research .

Scand Journal of Management Vol 11(4) , pp.319-333. Pich, M., Loch, C., & Meyer, A. (2002). On Uncertainty, Ambiguity, and Complexity in Project Management. Informs Vol 48(8) , pp.1008-1023. Soderlund, J. (2004). Building theories of project management:past research, questions for the future. International Journal of Project Management Vol 22(1) , pp.183-191. Sterman, J. (1992). System Dynamics Modeling for Project Management. Retrieved July 28, 2013, from mit.edu. Ward, S., & Chapman, C. (2003).

Transforming project risk management into project uncertainty management. International Journal of Project Management Vol 21(1) , pp.97-105. White, D., & Fortune, J. (2002). Current Practice in Project Management------ an empirical study . International Journal of Project Management Vol 20(1) , pp.1-11. Wysocki, R. (2007). Effective Project Management—Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme. Information Systems Control Journal Vol 5(1) , pp. 1-2.