Critically Evaluate Project Plan - Essay Example

Critical Evaluation of Project Plan Leadership and Project Management Report Introduction Leadership is the process of influencing the efforts of followers towards attainment of common goals through articulating a shared vision for the organisation (Lewis 2002). There is a clear cut difference between leadership and project management. A project manager acts as a facilitator during the project management process through implementing right processes, systems and procedures. A project leader establish the project vision, communicates the project vision and inspires high-performance teams that remain committed towards the accomplishment of project goals while a project manager is involved in planning and directing the project processes and solving project problems (Lewis 2002). 2.1 Leadership styles employed for managing dwelling project The main difference between leadership and management is how they motivate people since managers motivate their subordinates through communicating while leaders persuade their followers to remain committed to the shred vision (Northouse 2010). The managers react to changes in the built environment while leaders create change. Accordingly, managers exercise their control and power while leaders develop power within their people (Alizor 2011). The managers will try to maintain status quo through organizing and directing project tasks while leaders set new directions and perspectives that challenge the existing status quo in housing projects (Lussier and Achua 2010). Autocratic leadership style involves making decisions without consulting the subordinates and project managers often use this leadership style in emergency situations. Autocratic leadership may lead to team hostility and high dependence on the leader thus it is ineffective in delegation of tasks (Burke and Barron 2014). Harrell (2008) outlines that the approach requires close supervision, but it is appropriate in making faster decisions. Transactional leadership style will involve the use of formal job descriptions, authority and formal job output expectations to implement a dwelling project. The approach to leadership leads to less job satisfaction. Laissez-faire leadership style is a hands-off approach to leadership whereby the leader provides the required resources and tools for the successful completion of the dwelling project (Lussier and Achua 2010). The subordinates are free to make their own decisions and it is effective when the subordinates are highly experienced and motivated. The approach is not ideal where the team members have not prior experience in executing successful dwelling projects. Democratic leadership style entails inviting the ideas and suggestions of other members in the project team before making the final decision. Democratic leader will ensure consensus through participation of team leaders in decision-making thus ensuring the project team attain sense of ownership of the project decisions (Chopra 2002). This style of leadership enhances team motivation and results to better implementation of dwelling projects, but is often associated with slow decision-making due to the need for consultation among the team members (Northouse 2010). According to Juli (2010), situational or contingency leadership style of project leadership depends on the unique situations of the project. This type of leadership style is popular with path-goal approach whereby the leader helps the project team members set goals and find paths to their goals. In this case, the leader will exhibit supportive, participative and achievement-oriented behaviours that are critical to the overall attainment of project goals. Some of the contingent factors that leaders consider in selecting their leadership behaviours include the task structure, formal authority system, relationships with subordinates and subordinate factors such as perceived abilities and need for control (Northouse 2010). The leader is capable of delegating some tasks in situations where the subordinates have excellent abilities and experience in handling those tasks. Accordingly, the leader will be capable of using democratic leadership in situations where there is mutual trust and cordial relationships among the team members. The leader may prefer a laissez-faire style when working with highly-motivated teams and good working relationships since there will be low need of control and oversight (Bull 2011). The best leadership approach in ensuring the success of the dwelling project is transformational leadership style since it involves the use of charisma and inspiration in order to gain the emotional commitment of the followers towards accomplishment of the project goals. According to Muller and Turner (2012), this approach involves use of intrinsic motivation and inspiration of the followers through outlining high quality expectations of the project success and modeling the teams to exhibit appropriate behaviours. Accordingly, the approach involves the use of intellectual stimulation that challenges the existing norms and beliefs of the project teams thus enabling the members to consider new approaches and ideas in ensuring the success of the project. The transformational style of leadership provides individualised consideration of the needs and concerns of each member in the project teams thus ensuring trust and respect among the team members (Berkun 2005). In this case, the team members will feel appreciated and valued by the leader. In addition, the style involves idealised influence whereby the leader acts as a role model through gaining the trust of his subordinates. In this case, the leader will adhere to high standards of morals and ethics regarding the project in order to gain the trust and influence the efforts of his team (Laufer 2012). In this case, it is possible to complete the project within the stipulated time-frames and costs since project employees are aware of the work expectations and overall goal of the project. 2.2 Effective risk management, sources of risk and risk response plan Kloppenborg (2011) outlines that ffective risk management results in ultimate project success. Risk management involves identification, analysis and management of uncertainties that present internal and external risks in projects. Effective risk management starts with identification of uncertainties, analysis of risks and finally prioritisation of the risks. Continuous risk management ensures that high priority risks are aggressively addressed and project managers make the most prudent decisions at all stages in the project-life cycle (Harrison and Lock 2004). The project risks can be classified in to budget risks, schedule risks, contractual risks and resource risks. Some of the sources of risk in project management include undertaking too many projects at the same time, poor coordination of project teams, poor control of project design changes, and lack of integration during project planning and control (Bender 2009). Accordingly, insufficient resources, unrealistic project schedules and conflicting project priorities will present high risks. Inadequate staffing, infeasible house designs, uncertain client requirements, inadequate raw materials supplier’ capacity and funding challenges will also present sources of risks to projects. Accordingly, inadequate liaison and communication with clients might compromise the house project quality. Some external sources of risks include the unforeseen changes in housing regulatory requirements, sabotage, terrorism acts, and natural disasters (Westland 2007). Gido and Clements (2008) asserts that project risk management plan should be tailored to mitigate the identified and potential risks that affect the portions of the dwelling house project such as increase in the raw material costs, possible increase in human resource skills, possible changes in procurement laws and changes in project schedule. The initial step is planning quality management by defining and documenting the quality requirements of the house project. The project managers must identify the inputs, quality measurement techniques and expected outputs of the project (Westland 2007). The next step is the analysis of the probability of various risks and prioritising the risks depending of their likelihood of occurrence and monetary impact. Fox and Waldt (2008) asserts that a project manager must address the most probable and high impact risks in the risk response plan through implementing measures of mitigating the impact. The house designers and architectures are expected to consider all alternative approaches in their house designs in order to meet the client quality expectations including any impacts of the resources, deliverables and timescales for completion of the projects (Richman 2002). Some of the risk response strategies that can be used in dealing with identified negative risks include avoidance, transfer, mitigation and acceptance (Roberts 2011). Avoidance involves eliminating the risk through changing project plan and an example is constructing the house during summer instead of rainy season. Transfer involves using a third party such as insurance companies to cater for the monetary value of the risk in case of occurrence while mitigation involves reducing the likelihood and impact of the risk through prudent planning (Kerzner 2013). The last and worst strategy is acceptance of the risk where the unidentified and risks that cannot be transferred to third parties are accepted. The risk response strategies for positive risks include enhancing, sharing and exploitation in order to take advantages of the risks such as decline in raw material costs or good supplier relationships (Kerzner 2013). The risk response plan is often referred as a risk register and should include details such as the risk description, elements of the risk and causes of the risk (Roberts 2011). The plan should include risk owners and associated responsibilities in dealing with the risk. The plan should outline the quantitative and qualitative risk analysis methods and agreed response strategy for each risk. The plan should also highlight the residual risk after mitigation and timelines for the responses including contingency plans that will enable recovery from the risk in event of occurrence (Fox and Waldt 2008). 2.3 Processes of project quality management There are various processes of project quality management that aim at ensuring quality of house projects. A quality management process involves assuring and controlling the quality of deliverables and processes during the project life-cycle (Young 2013). The quality management process is aimed at enhancing and ensuring the quality of project outputs. The quality management process will help the project manager to set quality targets, define how the quality targets will be measured, identify the improvements and quality issues and report on the overall quality achievemenst (Spinner 1997). The process involves seeking continuous improvement opportunities in order to ensure client satisfaction and reduce the overall costs of non-conformity to the quality expectations. The initial step will entail establishment of quality criteria that will ensure quality deliverables and successful project outcomes. In this case, the project manager must communicate the quality targets to the project team and outline the methods that will be used in measuring quality (Lock 2007). The second step is the measurement of quality of deliverable through performing quality control and assurance activities that will ensure that all quality aspects and processes are undertaken within the project. Performing quality assurance involves checklists and house project audits that increase the likelihood of attaining the quality targets such as project reviews and retraining the project staff. According to Rose (2005), the project manager should take curative steps that aim at controlling the quality inn order to eliminate variances from the expected quality targets such as conducting deliverable reviews and documentation reviews. The last step is enhancing quality and ensuring continuous improvement until the deliverables meet the quality standards. The house project quality manager will be responsible for implementation of the quality assurance tools, implementation of quality control techniques, identifying quality deviations and reporting quality status to the project manager (Anderson and Grude 2009). Conclusion Leadership is concerned with influencing the efforts and abilities of followers in order to attain a shared common goal. Leadership plays a critical role in project management since it facilitates the articulation of a shared project vision and communication of the expected project outcomes to the project team. Transformational leadership style is the best approach of leadership in dealing with a dwelling project since it inspires and motivates the subordinates to exert their efforts towards attaining the project goals. In this case, the leader is capable of establishing trust, delegating tasks and ensuring emotional commitment of the team members towards accomplishing the project as per the pre-determined project standards. Effective risk management requires development of preventive measures or contingency plan that will reduce or eliminate the possibility of the risks occurring. A risk response plan includes avoidance through eliminating the specific threats, mitigation through reducing the monetary value of risk events and acceptance by developing a contingency plan that will be executed after occurrence of the risk event. There are various sources of project risks such as funding challenges, changes in client requirements, infeasible house designs, schedule risks and possible change in housing regulations. In this case, some of the risk response strategies that can be implemented include avoidance, transfer, mitigation or acceptance of the negative risks. The process of project quality management will lead to successful execution of projects and involves outlining the quality standards and deliverables, measurement of quality deliverables and quality control and ultimately continuous improvement in order to attain the pre-determined house project quality standards. Reference List: Alizor, J.O. 2011. Leadership: understanding theory, style, and practice: things you need to know about leading an organization. Bloomington: WestBow Press. Anderson, E.S and Grude, K. 2009. Goal Directed Project Management: Effective Techniques and Strategies. New York: Kogan Page Publishers. Bender, M.B. 2009. 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Project Quality Management: Why, What and How. New York: J.Ross Publishing. Spinner, M. 1997. Project Management: Principles and Practices. London: Prentice Hall. Westland, J. 2007. The Project Management Life cycle: A Complete Step-by-Step Methodology for Initiating, Planning, Executing and Closing a Project Successfully. New York: Kogan Page Publishers. Young, T.L. 2013. Successful Project Management. New York: Kogan Page Publishers. Read More