Prince 2 Project Management Methodology and Project Management Body of Knowledge - Assignment Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGY Name Course Lecturer Institution Date Table of Contents 1.0 Overview of Prince 2 Project Management Methodology 1 2.0 Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) 5 3.0 Wood Group PSN Engineering Management Project 7 Wood Group PSN is a worldwide provider of pre-operations, hood ups, operations, maintenance, commissioning, construction, engineering, decommissioning, project management and training services to the energy industry. The organisation has operations in more than 40 countries globally. Importantly, the organisation offers high integrity brownfield services that support its clients to optimise performance, reduce operational costs, maintain production and provide integrity assurance. Specifically, Wood Group PSN is undertaking a project in Australia called PSN water. Wood Group PSN entered in to a contract with the Australian government to provide mechanical, electrical and instrumentation in this project. This project is based in the Perth metro area of Australia. Wood Group PSN had been recognised for its tremendous work and achievements in delivering of high quality engineering projects in progressively demanding environments. It sustains standards whilst demonstrating continues improvement to asset safety, maintenance, and business and project administration in a cost constrained business (Eisner 2008). 7 Wood Group PSN will provide these services for duration of 15 years. The beneficially of this project is the Water Corporation of Western Australia. Water Corporation of Western Australia supplies water to more than three hundred towns. The organisation operates 89 waste water treatment plants and also provides drainage and irrigation services. While sourcing for a contractor, the organisation wanted a contractor with the right expertise and experience in this type of work, Wood Group PSN was the best fit for this work. Hence, it was awarded the contract. The work of the contractor, Wood Group PSN, is to bring gas and oil industry ideas on safety (Baker et al., 2008). 7 Some of the achievement of Wood Group PSN in engineering operations and maintenance of water utilities are achieving world class best practice for engineering maintenance management in water utilities. The company achieved an audit score of one point short of the highest score of the auditor. This is an indication that Wood Group PSN delivers high quality work without compromise to service delivery. On its part of maintenance, the company achieved a reduction in maintenance cost of 30 percent. This indicates that the company does not only use high quality materials but also expertise and experience in undertaking its work. The company has the best human resource who delivers high quality services. This is one of the strongest areas of the company (Baker et al., 2008). 8 In addition, the company has also reduced costs considerably. The company had a choice of either serving more assets and bring in more business for the corporation or losing people. Losing people was not conducive to quality, so the company chose to do more. This decision to serve more assets has achieved a 300 percent growth in revenue as well as 40 percent growth in personnel. The company achieved a one hundred percent on all key performance indi1cators. Furthermore, it received quality certification by DNV to 9001-2008 standard, upgraded to new ISO 9001-2000 standard. Importantly, it received a platinum certificate in safety from worksafe. Worksafe is the Australia's government agency for work safety and health laws. Most importantly, the company was able to achieve a reduction in LTIs from an average of six percent per annum before the award of the contract to zero. This is a great success of the project. 8 On the hand, the progress of this has not been such smooth. The company has experience some challenges while carrying out the engineering work one of the failures of this project is lack of understanding of dependencies. Although the company is contracted by Water Corporation of Western Australia to operate and maintain the assets, the company has a greater responsibility to the general public, the government, social organizations, wildlife and others users with interest in water in the greater Perth metro region. The compsn1y failed to understand this; this resulted in the company being sued for negligence. As indicated in the project report by the company, it lost Australia dollars 300,000 to a person who used water that was not yet fully treated and got seek. The project manager and the whole project team, on behalf of the company, admitted liability and this costed the company dearly. This is one failure of the company in undertaking the project. However, the company has taken precautionary measures to ensure that such incident does not happen again in future whatsoever even in other projects (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin 2006). 9 4.0 References 10 Baker, B.N., Murphy, D.C. and Fisher, D., 2008. Factors affecting project success. Project Management Handbook, Second Edition, pp.902-919. 10 Dinsmore, P.C. and Cabanis-Brewin, J., 2006. The AMA handbook of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. 10 Eisner, H., 2008. Essentials of project and systems engineering management. John Wiley & Sons. 11 1.0 Overview of Prince 2 Project Management Methodology Prince2 is a process based method for effective project management. It includes control, organisation and quality management of a project with review and consistency to align with outlined project aims. It embodies proven and established best practice in management of project. It steers project managers through all fundamentals for administering a successful project. It provides a methodology for delivering efficiencies, increased agility while at the same time reducing costs plus many more compelling organisational reasons to select it as the controlling solution in project management. Feedback from end users, review panel of private and public organizations and project management specialists prompted the development of Prince2. This wide range of ideas and sourcing resulted in generic best practice tool that is very flexible to be tailored to any organisation as well as used successfully for all types of projects (Fortune et al., 2011). This methodology separates the management features of project tasks from the specialist constructions such as construction and design. The specialist features of a project are effortlessly unified with prince2 method. When used along prince2 methodology, it provides a safe overall outline for the project tasks or work. Conversely, prince2 is generic and it is based on proven values. As such, organizations embracing this methodology can considerably increase their organisational maturity and capabilities across various expanses such as construction, business change, information technology, acquisitions and mergers, product development and research. Prince2 has different certification for practitioners. It supports best practice by its qualification scheme known as Prince2 qualification scheme. Prince2 is highly adaptable to specific contents and context of a project. This makes it the best practice to address the needs and achieve the objectives outlined. It is not a one size fits all’ solution but it is very flexible that it can be tailored to any size or type of the project (White & Fortune 2002). The appeals of Prince2 spread far beyond managing projects, projects specialists and executive board member. This far reaching appeal is result from giving greater control of resources as well as giving the ability to manage project and business risk more effectively. It uses tolerances and stages as its major features of control. Tolerances allow for a management by exemption method; that is, only including project board in decision making when the project tolerances have been surpassed. On the other hand, stages are used to project management appropriately documented and supervised for all persons directly involved such as the project manager and the project board members. The essential elements of each stage of project are clearly defined from the start to finish (Charvat 2003). Prince2 is the most practiced and applied project management practice. It is applied all over the world; it helps to navigate through all the important elements of running a successful project. It helps to control to the ever changing environment by providing the essential toolkit for any project manager. The benefits with this project management methodology are that it can be used to all types of projects in all fields. Moreover, it focuses on the project in a continuous. This is very important as it does not abandon a project halfway; it navigates a project until all project objectives are met. Importantly, Price2 prevents project managers from reinventing the wheel for project management. As such, project managers cannot manipulate the project (Jugdev & Thomas 2002). They cannot be able to divert the focus of the project, this is very important as it managers cannot be able to serve their interest (avoids conflict of interest). Prince2 has seven best principles. One of the principles is business justification; it must at any time have a continuous business justification. The second is learning from experience, it creates moments and time for acquisition, recording and conveying experiences (lessons are pursued, documented and acted upon during the life of the project). The third principle is roles and responsibilities. On this, it has a defined agreed procedures and roles with the structure of an organisation that engages the business, supplier, user and other stakeholders’ interests. The fourth principle is managing by stages. A Prince2 project must be, for every stage, planned, monitored and controlled. The fifth principle is managing by exemption; a Prince2 managed project has defined tolerances for each objective as also established ground rules on delegated authority. The sixth principle is focus on products; Prince2 puts a lot of emphasis on the final product. It must address right and proper definition and delivery of products and in particular the quality of the products. Lastly, it is tailored to suit the environment. This methodology is tailored to suit the size, complexity, environment, capability, importance and risks of a project (White & Fortune 2002). Projects are inevitable in organisations. If an organisation is to grow and expand, it must carry out projects. Projects are also means of earning revenue for organisations; they add value to organizations and hence increase their reputation. As such, organizations must keep up with the technology by carrying out projects. As the pace of change (social, technology, regulatory, business and others) speed up, the penalties of failing to keep up with the change are also harsh and more evident. An organisation can cease to operate and have no business to carry out due to failure to keep up with the pace of change. In the way, the focus of management attention should relatively move to achieve a balance business change and business as usual. Projects are the means by which organisations introduce and drive change. Pricne2 define a project as a provisional organisation formed for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an established business case. Essentially, project is a complex discipline. Despite its successes in project management, it is not wise to blindly apply Prince2 and expect to reap good results and run a successful project. It is indispensible to seek expertise and more information about this methodology before applying it. There are various professionals with valuable experience in applying and implementing prince2, it is important to seek their input before using it (Jugdev & Thomas 2002). 2.0 Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) is a set of standard guidelines and terminology (body of knowledge) for project management. This body of knowledge changes overtime; it is offered with a guide to the project management body of knowledge (this is a book whose fifth edition came out in 2013). PMBOK is a good practice in project management. It has practices and knowledge that are applicable to many projects; it adds value and usefulness in projects. It has ten knowledge areas. The knowledge areas are made of set of processes each having inputs, techniques and tools, and outputs. The processes, together, achieve proven project management tasks and drive project success. The knowledge areas also assume specific experiences and skills in order to achieve project objectives. This part will only discuss five the most important knowledge areas in how they add value to project management practice (PMI Standards Committee and PMI Standards Committee 1996). The first is integration management, this comprise developing a plan, execution of plan and integrated change control process. The significance of integrated management is that it ensures that all project elements are successfully coordinated. As project scope changes, it evaluates objectives and provides alternatives in order to meet the expectations of project stakeholders. The second knowledge area is risk management. This knowledge area equips project manager with risk management skills and expertise. It helps project manager, and other persons running the project, to detect, plan for, analyse, respond and control any issues that might dangerously affect a project and put the project team or end users at risk. It effectively maximises realization of opportunities by neutralizing project risk factors. It is one of the most necessary and essential knowledge areas in PMBOK (Crawford 2005). The third knowledge area is communications management. Management of communication is one of the most important aspects in an organisation, and so does in project management. For any project to be successful, the right people must receive and convey the right information at the right time. Communication management identifies what information should be communicated with the project team, who it should reach as well as who will effectively use the information. It includes planning, creating and distributing, retrieving, managing and monitoring how information is relayed (Crawford 2005). The fourth knowledge area is human resource management. This is equally important aspect of knowledge area. It entails putting together a project team and managing it so that it can perform effectively and meet the demands of the project in addition to achieving the project objectives. The size of project team varies depending on factors such as duration, quality, and scope. Despite the size of the project team, all the team members must be much organised, led and managed effectively. Human resource management does this in a seamless manner, hence, it’s important. Human resource is the most important aspect in an organisation as does in a project. Ensuring that the right people have the right skills, experience and expertise to undertake the various tasks in the project is very important. Moreover, managing them to ensure that they give their maximum output and that they are productive is paramount if a project is to be successful. Human resource management does this seamlessly (Crawford 2005). The fifth knowledge area is quality management; this involves ensuring that every aspect of the project has achieved the highest quality as outlined. No project is successful if it does not meet the quality requirements and deliverables of the sponsor. Quality management helps in determining quality policies, project objectives and responsibilities so that it meets the stated needs and specifications of the sponsor (Cicmil et al., 2006). 3.0 Wood Group PSN Engineering Management Project Wood Group PSN is a worldwide provider of pre-operations, hood ups, operations, maintenance, commissioning, construction, engineering, decommissioning, project management and training services to the energy industry. The organisation has operations in more than 40 countries globally. Importantly, the organisation offers high integrity brownfield services that support its clients to optimise performance, reduce operational costs, maintain production and provide integrity assurance. Specifically, Wood Group PSN is undertaking a project in Australia called PSN water. Wood Group PSN entered in to a contract with the Australian government to provide mechanical, electrical and instrumentation in this project. This project is based in the Perth metro area of Australia. Wood Group PSN had been recognised for its tremendous work and achievements in delivering of high quality engineering projects in progressively demanding environments. It sustains standards whilst demonstrating continues improvement to asset safety, maintenance, and business and project administration in a cost constrained business (Eisner 2008). Wood Group PSN will provide these services for duration of 15 years. The beneficially of this project is the Water Corporation of Western Australia. Water Corporation of Western Australia supplies water to more than three hundred towns. The organisation operates 89 waste water treatment plants and also provides drainage and irrigation services. While sourcing for a contractor, the organisation wanted a contractor with the right expertise and experience in this type of work, Wood Group PSN was the best fit for this work. Hence, it was awarded the contract. The work of the contractor, Wood Group PSN, is to bring gas and oil industry ideas on safety (Baker et al., 2008). Some of the achievement of Wood Group PSN in engineering operations and maintenance of water utilities are achieving world class best practice for engineering maintenance management in water utilities. The company achieved an audit score of one point short of the highest score of the auditor. This is an indication that Wood Group PSN delivers high quality work without compromise to service delivery. On its part of maintenance, the company achieved a reduction in maintenance cost of 30 percent. This indicates that the company does not only use high quality materials but also expertise and experience in undertaking its work. The company has the best human resource who delivers high quality services. This is one of the strongest areas of the company (Baker et al., 2008). In addition, the company has also reduced costs considerably. The company had a choice of either serving more assets and bring in more business for the corporation or losing people. Losing people was not conducive to quality, so the company chose to do more. This decision to serve more assets has achieved a 300 percent growth in revenue as well as 40 percent growth in personnel. The company achieved a one hundred percent on all key performance indi1cators. Furthermore, it received quality certification by DNV to 9001-2008 standard, upgraded to new ISO 9001-2000 standard. Importantly, it received a platinum certificate in safety from worksafe. Worksafe is the Australia's government agency for work safety and health laws. Most importantly, the company was able to achieve a reduction in LTIs from an average of six percent per annum before the award of the contract to zero. This is a great success of the project. On the hand, the progress of this has not been such smooth. The company has experience some challenges while carrying out the engineering work one of the failures of this project is lack of understanding of dependencies. Although the company is contracted by Water Corporation of Western Australia to operate and maintain the assets, the company has a greater responsibility to the general public, the government, social organizations, wildlife and others users with interest in water in the greater Perth metro region. The compsn1y failed to understand this; this resulted in the company being sued for negligence. As indicated in the project report by the company, it lost Australia dollars 300,000 to a person who used water that was not yet fully treated and got seek. The project manager and the whole project team, on behalf of the company, admitted liability and this costed the company dearly. This is one failure of the company in undertaking the project. However, the company has taken precautionary measures to ensure that such incident does not happen again in future whatsoever even in other projects (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin 2006). Such filing affects the project and it had an underlying problem. Most engineering managers are competent and well qualified. However, this is something that is outside of the engineering scope, it falls within the sphere of human competence. Another failure is the company's drive for speed. It had pressure to complete the project phases on schedule. This made the project team to work out very fast thereby forgetting some basic concepts. There was miscommunication between the project team and the project sponsor on some of the deliverables. This resulted in some information arriving late thereby affecting engineering work of the assets. Slips in schedule and cost overruns are some of the problems cause due to miscommunication. Some of the items needed arrived late making the project team to speed up tasks (Baker et al., 2008). Essentially, this project is a very example of engineering management project. It indicates the lessons learn by the company as well as its successes and failures in undertaking the project. Engineering management field is one area that offers a wide range of spectrum in exploring engineering expertise and knowhow. 4.0 References Baker, B.N., Murphy, D.C. and Fisher, D., 2008. Factors affecting project success. Project Management Handbook, Second Edition, pp.902-919. Charvat, J., 2003. Project management methodologies: selecting, implementing, and supporting methodologies and processes for projects. John Wiley & Sons. Cicmil, S., Williams, T., Thomas, J. and Hodgson, D., 2006. Rethinking project management: researching the actuality of projects. International Journal of Project Management, 24(8), pp.675-686. Crawford, L., 2005. Senior management perceptions of project management competence. International journal of project management, 23(1), pp.7-16. Dinsmore, P.C. and Cabanis-Brewin, J., 2006. The AMA handbook of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Eisner, H., 2008. Essentials of project and systems engineering management. John Wiley & Sons. Fortune, J., White, D., Jugdev, K. and Walker, D., 2011. Looking again at current practice in project management. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 4(4), pp.553-572. Jugdev, K. and Thomas, J., 2002. Project management maturity models: The silver bullets of competitive advantage. Project Management Institute. PMI Standards Committee and PMI Standards Committee, 1996. A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Project Management Institute. White, D. and Fortune, J., 2002. Current practice in project management—An empirical study. International journal of project management, 20(1), pp.1-11. Read More