Project Management Approaches - Essay Example

?Project Management Project management, as the implies is the management of any project. Management of a project includes several tasks that areranged right from the conception of the project’s idea till its culmination and delivery. Tasks included in the management of a project include but are not limited to assessment of risks before in the initial stage, identification of ways to mitigate those risks and preferably their conversion into opportunities, estimation of monetary, human and all other kinds of resources and their arrangement, acquiring various kinds of insurances for the project, planning the project, allocation of resources to the project, management of resources according to the rapidly changing circumstances, sequencing the activities, adjusting the schedule in accordance with the unforeseen delays, running the cash flow, supervising the work, dealing with the stakeholders and delivering the end product to the client. Project management is important to the business world because it is fundamental to the success of project, and accordingly enlargement of the profitability of the project. In the contemporary age, there is a lot of competition in the market. In order to gain competitive advantage, companies are trying to make their systems perfect. There is no room for deficiency because the clients have a variety of vendors to choose the services from. In such circumstances, proper management of the project ensures that the project is completed on time, within budget and with least inconvenience to any of the parties involved in the project. Project management adopts a pro-active approach to assess and manage the potential risks of the project which is beneficial for all parties in the long run. Successful project management promotes business. Lifecycle of a project can be divided into four phases, namely project initiation, project planning, project execution and project closure. Project lifecycle management is basically the management of these four phases of the project. Each of these phases has its own crucial aspects that need to be managed. For example, in the project initiation phase, risk assessment and mitigation is primarily important. In project planning, selection of the plan that is the most cost-effective among all is mainly important. In the project execution phase, supervision of the work is the most important whereas in the project closure stage, clarifying the snag list prepared by the consultant or client and acquiring the payment is primarily the work of the project manager. Project management is extremely important for an organization because it enables the organizational personnel to do the work in an organized manner. When the majority of risks have been timely identified and catered for, work flows smoothly and so does the cash flow. This allows the finance department to generate the salaries on time and everybody is happy. The peace of mind thus achieved enables the organizational personnel to optimize upon their capabilities and they are able to give in their best for the organization. Hence, project management is vital for the success of an organization. Planning is one of the most fundamental concepts of the project management. Planning means determining how the work will be executed. There can be numerous ways to attain the final product. The goal of the project manager is to select such a plan from among a variety of options, that consumes the least resources, is the least time-consuming and yet leads him to the product without compromising upon its quality. In order for a project manager to identify such a plan for a particular project, it is imperative that he carries out a comprehensive research to brainstorm himself with the possible alternatives that can be adopted to get the project executed. While doing the research, the project manager should see how a project of a specific nature has been executed in the past, what potential benefits and drawbacks were identified by the project executers of using such a plan after it had been executed, and what conclusions had they drawn for making the plan of execution of such a project more beneficial. In addition to research, the project manager is required to have strong critical thinking skills so that he may be able to identify the merits and demerits of each plan. This evaluation is necessary for selecting the most rational plan for a particular project. There are several types of organizations depending upon the level of authority they give to the project manager. There are strong matrix organizations in which the project manager assumes extreme authority, weak matrix organizations in which the project manager assumes substantial authority and functional organizations in which the project manager assumes least authority. The more the control of project manager in an organization, the more organized things become because it promotes a system of dictatorship wherein everybody has to abide by the laws generated by the project manager. “The project organization must almost inevitably take direct responsibility for providing the necessary infrastructure and social services on new settlement schemes” (FAO Corporate Document Repository, n.d.). Leadership and sponsorship is the integral element of project management. In the context of a project, the terms leadership, sponsorship and management are frequently used interchangeably, though there are slight differences among their meanings. Nevertheless, all three of them almost always integrate to make project management. Managing a project is about sponsoring it, providing the finances for it, arranging, managing and controlling the resources, evaluating the progress and modifying the approach with a view to minimizing the weaknesses and maximizing the strengths. The sort of control a project manager is supposed to have over all resources in general and the human resources in particular requires him to be acquainted with sound leadership skills. Successful project requires dedication and hard work of a team. A project manager cannot achieve his goals with a disgruntled group of people that have no goals, objectives, visions, missions and aspirations in common. In order to make the organizational personnel give in their best, it is imperative that they are provided with such an environment where they feel comfortable and are able to self-actualize. This is achieved by team building. The primary goal of a leader is to make the people work as a team because when people work as a team, they tend to cover one another’s weaknesses with their respective strengths. Members of a team are like members of one family, whose objectives are same and who work towards the achievement of the same goal. In order to achieve successful team building, numerous techniques are conventionally employed by the project managers that include but are not limited to conflict resolution, enhancement of trust amongst the members, appreciation and encouragement. A project manager may also make use of small activities to promote the team building. The activity can be as simple as a 15 minute task in which the project manager asks the workers to discuss their issues with one another, hug and start a new relationship with clear mind and heart. A work breakdown structure, as the name indicates, is a structure which shows the various constituents of the work. A work breakdown structure is created in the form of a flow-chart in which each parent task off-shoots the sub-tasks. As we go down the chart, it gets messier because of the accumulation of sub-tasks. Thus, a work breakdown structure provides the project manager with an objective framework to make his estimation about the resources that would be required in the project. The plan of a project is made up of several packages. Each activity requires a number of sub-activities to be completed. The project manager breaks down the overall project into work packages by reflecting upon the project’s plan. The plan guides the project manager on the activities one by one that need to be completed in order to execute the project. “To start out, the project manager and subject matter experts determine the main deliverables for the project. Once this is completed, they start decomposing the deliverables they have identified, breaking them down to successively smaller chunks of work” (Gordon, 2011). These days, there is a growing trend among organizations to make use of the project management software in order to benefit from objective and quantifiable project management. Project management software is particularly employed in the large integrated programs. Project management software enables the organizations to make use of a unified strategy that involves all personnel in the organization structure. Project management software enables the organizations to compare the status of different projects with one another. Using the project management software, a project manager finds it easy to make informed decisions about the allocation of resources. The software generates quantifiable results using which, the product development processes can be enhanced. These and several more benefits derived from the use of the project management software reinforces improved accountability, increases the efficiency of the system and promotes improved project planning by placing business aptitude at the fingertips of the management. Project management softwares are particularly suitable to the needs of the contemporary age in which organizations want quantifiable results to measure the outcome of their strategies and make the necessary changes to improve them. References: FAO Corporate Document Repository. (n.d.). Planning the project organization. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5647E/x5647e05.htm. Gordon, A. (2011, July 4). What is a Work Breakdown Structure? Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/2645.aspx. Read More