Resource Management as the Efficient and Effective Deployment of Organization Resources - Coursework Example

Project Management Resource Management Resource management is the efficient and effective deployment of organization resources whenthey are needed (R.Drew 2009). The integrated project management enables assigning of resources to make sure that there is no creation of bottlenecks or inadvertent risks by setting up too many things going live on certain dates. It also ensures that the right people with the right skills and proper tools are selected and they understand what needs to be done. The system enables tracking of resources to ensure that they are being utilized as per expectation. It also enables senior management to keep track of projects and ensure that the system is updated as far as what resources are involved and what are the timelines (R.Drew 2009). The project management system enables users to easily see that resources are applied to the right tasks at the right time. It assists managers to make sure that they have allocated ample time to the employees for the success of the project (R.Drew 2009). Project management system enables assigning of tasks which can be declined or accepted by the managers depending on whether they have the time and resources to perform the tasks. This in turn provides team work since one is not assigned tasks they cannot or do not what to perform. It also ensures that there is no overlap in resource assignment (R.Drew 2009). Project Sponsorship and Leadership A project sponsor is the link between the project team and the organisation executive team. They own the project and have the ultimate responsibility for seeing that the intended benefits are realized to create the value of forecast in the business case (L. Bourne 2012). An escalation process ensures that the next level of management is informed periodically, if an issue cannot be resolved by the project manager. Examples of some of the issues that are usually escalated are resource conflicts; this is where during projects people are pulled out to go and assist resolve problems in their day to day work areas threatening the projects ability to meet its schedule. Another example is when the project team realizes that late in the project, there are issues with the project’s main deliverables and the team believes that the issue cannot be corrected within the original time (efor_blog 2009). The escalation process should be defined at the beginning of the project by setting expectations as to how certain issues will be raised to the project sponsor during the project to avoid conflict between the project team and the project sponsor. The project team should keep track of the issues, regularly reviewing them and determining their significance, so that teams see which should be escalated. This can be achieved by having issues logs, project status reviews and bug reviews. When escalating the issues the project manager should have supporting information to help the project sponsor understand the context and impact of the issue and make trade-offs if they are being asked to make a decision or give the team guidance (efor_blog 2009). Project Management Software The project manager can use the data to keep track of on-going projects, the key resources working on the project and how many deliverables they were to meet weekly. This helps the managers to rebalance and prioritize. The project manager can use the system to make changes and additions easily. The data is used to see whether the resources are applied to the right tasks at the right time. (R.Drew 2009). The project management system enables the project manager see the priority projects especially when budgets are tight and fewer resources are available. They get to see what actions might not get done in the timelines they were thinking of because they were making the choices about the priorities and how they are applying the resources (R.Drew 2009). Project manager should ensure that everything is documented. This ensures that there is information that can be used for decision making in case any issues arise that need escalation. Using the project management systems the project manager is able to get period reports on the progress of the project and have meeting with the sponsors to give them updates. Through this, issues that arise that the project manager is not able to resolve are easily escalated and decisions made within the timelines (M. Williams 2004). Horror Stories Project scope is project planning that determines and documents a list of specific goals, deliverables, tasks, costs and deadlines (L. Richter 2011). It explains the boundaries of the project, establishes responsibilities for each team member and set up procedures for how completed work will be verified and approved. It also provides guidelines on change requests during the project. The project scope enables better management of change and avoids scope creep where products or project requirements increase during development beyond those originally foreseen (L. Richter 2011). Risk management generates changes, scope creep that in turn creates new risk. It is important for the project team to identify risks, measure their potential harm and create plans to deal with the threats (J. Tyler 2009). There should be continuous updates on product quality, costs and timing and reported to management as soon as possible for quick decision making. This is important as risks are identified and dealt with immediately to avoid failure of the project (J. Tyler 2009). To avoid scope creep change management techniques should be involved. The project team must address how the changes affect the project budget as well as staff allocations. This helps to minimize the number and extent of surprises so that you focus on what was defined on the project scope (L. Richter 2011). Kick-off Meetings The project manager runs the kick-off meetings to communicate the requirements of the project and to discuss assignments, commitments, resource questions and other issues relevant to completing the work (M.G. Hill 2006). The kick-off meeting needs to be properly planned to ensure its success. It should have a strong agenda which should be circulated to participates to enable them understand what needs to be achieved by the end of the meeting (B. Egeland 2009). The kick- off meetings are important as they assist the project team understand what is expected of them from the project. In these meetings the project is presented explaining the project assumptions and highlights the communication plan. It also gives an opportunity for the participants to ask questions (B. Egeland 2009). In the kick-off project that I attended, all stakeholders of the project were present or represented. The project members were introduced, updated on scope of the project and advised on the communication channels. The team members were given an opportunity to ask questions that made them understand their roles in the project better. As an improvement of the kick-off meeting, the team members should have been trained on change management to enable better management of changes that arose during the project. There should have been a risk management plan that would have been used to easily identify and resolve issues that arose in the course of the project (B. Egeland 2009). Project Reviews The purpose of project reviews is to focus on actionable information. Actionable information is information that creates opportunity for senior management action to develop technology and marketing concepts and accomplish corporate business development goals and objectives (M.G. Hill 2006). Some of the reviews that should be in the project review are project performance which looks at the successful approaches to leading the project team and team performance, feedback from customer and from team members. Another review is information on competitive challenges regarding lessons learnt by customers from competitors or stakeholders and financial and productivity data (M.G. Hill 2006). Project team performance is action information which gives feedback on team interaction with customer, insight on core competencies need for project leadership and team membership. The review also indicates the opportunities for customer partnering by identifying business process outsourcing opportunities and joint project team opportunities (M.G. Hill 2006). The final action information is earned value that tracks data showing major schedule problems and cost variances, cost to complete and plans for corrective action (M.G. Hill 2006). It is important to give the project sponsors the actual status of the project as opposed to what they want to hear, because certain issues may rise which the project team might not find crucial but the project sponsor sees that they are issues that need to be attended to before the project progresses further. This in turn will ensure that the project is within schedule and may save on costs and other related losses. Update on status of the project also gives the project sponsor an indication on how the project is progressing and will enable him or her make decisions regarding any issues that may affect the time allocated and completion of the project. With timely information the project sponsor can make decisions fast without affecting the timelines or completion of the project. References Robb Drew (2009). Perfecting Project management. HRMagazine 54.6 (June 2009): 115-116,118. Lynda Bourne (2012). What does a Project Sponsor Really Do?. Website: http://www.efor.ca/blog/2009/02/25/project-escalation-processes. efor_blog (2009). Project escalation processes. Meri Williams (2004). Principles of Project Management. Linda Richter (2011) edited by: Michele McDonough . Defining the Project Scope: Tips & Free Template. Joe Tyler Jr (2009) edited by: Marlene Gundlach. Using Risk Management Plans to Prevent Project failure. Brad Egeland (2009). The project Kickoff. McGraw – Hill (2006). Integrated Project Management Read More