Developing Effective Project: Planning and Team Building - Literature review Example

Project Planning Introduction Project planning and team building are two most important ingredients in project management. Planning should be executed by an effective team because a very good plan can be spoiled by a poorly developed team. Likewise a good and effective team cannot work well with a poorly developed plan. Successful projects are executed by an outstanding team with a well-developed and well-considered plan. (Thomas et al., 2008) Experiential learning activity is a classroom activity which involves application of project management. The activity is project management in practice wherein the team is tasked to plan, design, and build structures. The students are required to carry on the project management with time constraints. This activity can provide fruitful experience that can help them in their future career when time comes that they are assigned to do project planning. ELA is very important for students of project management in the sense that they will have a real feel of what they will encounter come their time to practice their profession in engineering or other disciplines that require a lot of teamwork. ELA is an educational tool which helps the instructor and also the students in carrying out a project. The instructor can ask questions that motivate the students to provide insights and ideas about a given subject matter. The activity includes a pretest and posttest method where data can be collected. The instructor can study the findings and provide output for the course. (Carden and Egan, 2008, p. 315) The project manager and his team should be able to have coordination and teamwork and a good communication process. The team should have a well-studied plan that is borne out of a careful evaluation and analysis of the situation. Senior members of the team, or the experienced managers and experts should be consulted because they have the knowledge to carry out projects. Main Body Knowledge, teamworking and good management are important characteristics of a team (Koch, 2004). This simple sentence by Koch (2004) carries a lot of meanings. Knowledge itself has many connotations. Knowledge has got to be present in a team that must perform teamwork to carry out a project. And these are the requirements of an effective management in carrying out a project. A project is defined as a job or task that is carefully planned, with a deadline to follow, implemented by a team and to be evaluated by a manager or client who is the owner/buyer of the project. (Carden and Egan, 2008) This definition of project can be applied to almost every aspect of human existence. A project can be in the workplace, in the office, or in an organization. It has to be worked out and planned and has to be carried up to its completion. Project management aims for the completion of the project. Planning has a big part for its completion. Project management was first introduced in construction and engineering and has been borrowed by other fields because of the benefits acquired by organizations. It has been applied to other fields such as academic, industrial, service, and other professional fields. There are four historical stages of project management: first is its discovery, later it was refined and improved by the users, then it was used in human resource, and it created a beneficial outcome. HRD managers who do not recognize project management as too important fail in planning and management of projects (Gilley et al., 2002, p. 231 cited in Carden and Egan, 2008, p. 231). Human resource development (HRD) is defined as the development of individuals in the workplace with the aid of training and development including motivation and improvement in human behavior. The objective of HRD is to improve employee performance in the job. HRD and project management have got to be interrelated. HRD uses project management techniques such as planning in implementing projects. Activities are geared towards improvement of the organization and also for the individual. These activities are aimed and classified as projects, implemented by a project team. This method has become common in many organizational activities worldwide. Project management and HRD are both used in activities in organizations because they provide careful project planning. Both strategies provide avenues for improvement and fulfillment of the organization’s objectives. They also can provide positive output for the organization. (Carden and Egan, 2008) A team is defined as a group of individuals who are workers, dedicated to devote their skills and time for a common goal, specifically for an organization, and for which they bind themselves to commit. The team works for the development of a particular product and service. Mostly, this product and service belong to an organization where the individuals work. Team building has been applied in manufacturing and production to improve the workplace. This is also related to the Japanese kaizen concept which is known as “continual improvement”. Kaizen can be applied to design, production and manufacturing. A selection of team members begins by referring to the list of skills, abilities, and experiences needed for team members in the charter. The team develops a membership matrix listing all the needed qualifications and the prospected qualified applicants or members. The members have to be screened by the responsible person or the manager, after which he/she may select a team leader for such a team. But first the objective of the team should be outlined, i.e. why the team was established in the first place. Teamwork is considered a special feature for improved organizational performance. The formation of teams can be considered the result of the implementation of total quality management. They are essential to organizations that are dedicated for the development of workers. (Contu, 2007, p. 125) Moreover, organizations such as these are not content of mere improvement because they aim for excellence. The kind of management that these organizations introduce want the best in people and not for mere profit. Synonymous terms given to this kind of clustering are responsible teams, self-managing teams, or semi-autonomous teams which are building blocks of new ‘post-bureaucratic’ organizational forms, but which are comparatively flat and agile because they have few hierarchical layers (Peters, 1988, cited in Contu, 2007, p. 126). Through team formation, the organization and its people can easily respond to any problem or situation. Once a job or project is given to the team to handle, they can right away form a study group, create a plan, and implement the plans according to specifications coming from management or from the client, the buyer of the project. It is not hard to motivate a team because teams are strongly motivated for work. Traditional organizations go for strict rules and the implementation of traditional values of work which are not anymore effective in this age of globalization and the Internet. Team working is related to the term “lean factory”. As the term evolved, it was first introduced into the automobile manufacturing industry. Lean design was used in the car industry and it became very beneficial for the industry. Team work can be applied with knowledge management. Team work when applied with knowledge management can be very effective. The term lean design refers to the traditional way of creating products. (Contu, 1990, p. 126) Lean design aims to minimize waste and repetitions in the job which, when accomplished, can reduce the cost of production. It also shortens the process of production. Products are only delivered when ordered by the customer or, in the case of b2b arrangements, by another company. There is no excess in supply or supply inventory. The system is fast and effective and this is what lean design aims for. The Importance of Planning Studies have shown that when planning processes are developed and improved, there is a likelihood of project success. Planning is key factor to project success and is a critical success factor to project management. The goal of the planning phase is preparation for the actual project execution and control. (Zwikael, 2009, p. 95) One problem of planning, as noted in one study by Flyvbjerg, Holm, and Buhl (2002 cited in Zwikael, 2009, p. 95), is to provide estimate cost and schedule. This was said as problematic in their study involving a $90 billion infrastructure project which found the cost estimates to be misleading. The authors suggested that cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses of project promoters and analysts should not just be trusted. It could lead to high-cost overruns upon completion of the project (Keil, Rai, Ellen, Mann, & Zhang, 2003 cited in Zwikael, 2009, p. 95). The main concern of project planning is to get decisions for the project that should be implemented in the future. Project planning provides a step-by-step process for the project team and tells them to do the necessary and important ways of doing it, how and when to do it and the resources that should be used in order to deliver the desired outcome of the project. (Meredith & Mantel, 2006 cited in Zwikael, 2009, p. 95) Through quality planning, project managers can have elimination and reduction of uncertainty; improved efficiency of the operation; an understanding of the aims and objectives of what the planners are doing; and a basis to maintain the momentum of work. (Kerzner, 2006 cited in Zwikael, 2009) On the other hand, strategic planning is implemented by firms to increase new product development (NPD) that can enhance organizational performance. Strategic planning refers to the organization’s strategy in dealing with the competition in the industry, while project planning is implemented on a particular project. But the two are interrelated in that they are applied for organizational success. (Song et al., 2011, p. 503) Effect of Topic under Discussion on Achieving Project Objectives Application of a Project Planning A new firm has introduced itself in the global market. Actually, this firm has been in car making for quite some time now but exportation is a new strategic program of the firm. A project team is formed to implement the new aims of the company. Let’s call this firm the Manab Automobile which is based primarily in Thailand. It is a new face that needs to be reintroduced into the high-tech world of sales and marketing. The traditional Manab Automobile has been in existence since the 1950s. It was actually a small company with a few thousands of products manufactured every year. As time went by, the production team perfected the traditional way of production – teamwork and effective management. The project team was composed of veteran engineers and technicians from Thailand with consultants coming from Japan. This small company introduced continual improvement applications in production. Because of this, it soared to greater heights as a local production firm until it grew to become a global organization. Its engineers introduced kaizen which became effective and beneficial for both the production staff and the organization in general. (Imai, 1986, p. 2) Project engineers performed a project plan by cutting and shortening some stages of production to save time and provide flexibility. Still, the use of information system was something new to Manab engineers and automakers. The process became effective. The continual improvement concept is, in fact, continuing and commendable. The company is a knowledge-based firm, but how it can provide this vast knowledge and information to its database is still in question. The company has still to introduce information systems in order to become global and to compete with other leading world automakers. It has built a database of information, but this database needs to be web-enabled to answer to the call of the growing number of customers who have valued their unique cars. Actually these are Asian cars, original in its concept, small and light, effective and not costly. The project team submitted to the management a project plan for the implementation of an information system. The team was composed of young, energetic and talented engineers and technicians. They presented to management a well-designed and well-developed plan. The plan was approved and the company implemented an information system including a website. Stakeholders and employees were anxious of the new, fast, effective and secured information system. Customers began to communicate with the company through the new state-of-the-art website. The applications were connected to the Internet. Consultants from the company composed of marketing analysts who could provide information about the products were available with an open line of communication with the customers. The project team suggested that paperwork can be minimized through automation, while recording and logging of sales and service, or placing order by customers would be an easy task. Automation can enhance targeted marketing, minimize costs, and enhance sales. Application of an information system can minimize costs and enhance sales. Automation can also minimize the use of tiresome paperwork or loads of paper ledges and brochures. (Docstoc.com, 2009) The project team implemented a sales-force automation system that can do marketing, customer service, produce processing and order-taking. Other applications involved contact managers, which means the automation of calendar and address book programs, databases, and workflow engines (Boehm and Jain, 2007, p. 777). Conclusion Project planning is very important in carrying out a project. But this has to be implemented by an effective team who must bring along with it a well-developed plan. Plans and teams should have an effective framework. There can be problems in the implementation of a plan. The team making the plan should see to it that cost estimates can be trusted, or they are studied carefully, otherwise the over-estimates can cause overruns which can create a lot of problems on the part of the client or owner of the project. In our example of a project implementation, an effective team worked out a plan to implement an information system of a firm that is going on global. The team has to create the plan, recommend it to management and implement it on schedule. Working out a project management starts with a plan, studying the plan, recommending it to management, and implement it up to the project’s completion. References Boehm, B. W. and Jain, A., 2007. An initial theory of value-based software engineering (2005). In R. Selby (Ed.), Software engineering: Barry W. Boehm’s lifetime contributions to software development, management, and research. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Carden, L. and Egan, T., 2008. Human Resource Development and Project Management: Key Connections. Human Resource Development Review 2008; 7; 309. DOI: 10.1177/1534484308320577. DOI: 10.1177/0143831X04042492. Available through: Business Source Complete database [Accessed 25 July 2011] Contu, A., 2007. Groups and teams at work. In D. Knights & H. Willmott (Eds.), Organization Behavior & Management. London: Thomson Learning. Docstoc.com, 2009. DFDs (data flow diagrams) examples. Available from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/5625261/DFDs-%28Data-Flow-Diagrams%29-Examples. [Accessed23 December 2010] Imai, M., 1986. Kaizen. London: Random House. Koch, C., 2004. The tyranny of projects: teamworking, knowledge production and management in consulting engineering. Economic and Industrial Democracy 2004; 25; 277. Available through: City University London [Accessed 25 July 2011]. Song, M., 2011. Does strategic planning enhance or impede innovation and firm performance? J. Prod Innov Manag 2011; 28:503-520. DOI: 101111/j.1540-5885.2011, 00822.x. Available from: Business Source Complete database [Accessed 25 July 2011]. Thomas, M. et al., 2008. Developing and effective project: planning and team building combined. Project Management Journal, Vol. 39, No. 4, 105-113. DOI: 10.1002/pmj.20079. Available through: Business Source Complete [Accessed 25 July 2011]. Zwikael, O., 2009. The relative importance of the PMBOK® guide’s nine knowledge areas during project planning. Project Management Journal, vol. 40, No. 4, 94-103, Project Management Institute, DOI: 10.1002/pmj.20116, Available through: Business Source Complete database [Accessed 25 July 2011] Read More