Project management - Essay Example

? Project management College: Introduction This study explores project management discipline in the context of the construction project, Scottish Parliament Building located at Edinburgh. The building was designed in 1998 by Enrich Miralles, one of world’s renowned architects, the project was estimated to cost $75 million but it was completed in 2004, after six years six years at a cost of about $830 million. This is one of the dramatic examples of failure to effectively control costs in construction projects (Ward, 2008, p. 49). This study will discuss project management role and examine the key elements, it will also discuss the role of project manager and select three key elements important in project management. Project management and its key roles Project management is an art and a science that involves organizing, securing, planning and managing of resources with an aim to accomplish specified goals (Lewis 2010, p. 7). A project can be defined as a short-term or temporary endeavor whose beginning and the end is clearly defined. Project management plays a significant role in facilitating execution of projects such as new software development, installation of new hardware or building a facility (Cleland & Ireland, 2006, p. 3). As mentioned by Wessels (2007, p. 1), project management helps in selecting, managing and supporting of projects that are of significant importance in accomplishment of an organization’s objectives, making it vibrant at marketplace and maximizing shareholders wealth. In an organization set up, various divisions and departments compete for scarce human and financial resources; project management plays an important role in rational decision framework enabling people to make the appropriate project investment decisions. Project management plays a critical role in management of outcomes mainly the cost, time and performance of the project (Heerkens 2007, p. 5). Projects are selected based on cost and benefit analysis where their return on investment is evaluated against cost of implementation. Role of project manager According to Lewis (2004, p. 19), project manager has the total responsibility to ensure that all project details are handled properly, this requires them to be highly proactive and not reactive. Project manager should follow up on things ordered or scheduled ensuring that things like requisition and purchasing are effectively running, project manager helps in project planning, controlling, monitoring and organization of project resources. Project manager plays a significant role in giving a project economic approach by determining its (ROI) return on investment. Project manager is also responsible for project risk management; he must identify risks, monitor and design effective response. He is also responsible for project reporting to the management of the organization. Key elements in project management Key elements in project management include managing and controlling project scope through clearly established aims, objectives and goals, managing cost element, managing risks, managing human resources, managing time planning, control and scheduling, and managing quality to meet the desired standards (Lock, 2007, p. 78). Project integration, management communications, procurement processes, and quality are also key element in project management. Managing the project scope Project management plays a critical role in ensuring that the aims, goals and objectives of the project are clearly and articulately established. Many projects fail due to wrong or unclear goals and requirements. With unclear goals, project experiences problems, however, with wrong goals, projects fail spectacularly (Rusell 2007, p. 45). Scottish Parliament has clear and articulate goals and objectives but had no clear requirements. Scottish parliament changed requirements of that projects several times, for instance they increased functions of the building demanding for more size and space, these changes caused various difficulties to the project team causing budget overrun and more delay. Effective project management requires clear goals, objectives and requirements, these eliminates instances of delay and budget overruns ensuring that objectives are met and quality guaranteed at the estimated financial outlay (Harold 2005, p. 42). Project planning Project planning, controlling and scheduling enables project to use the scarce resources to attain the desired results, the results include cost, schedule, scope, and performance. Effective planning, scheduling and control are critical components in project management, they enables project to attain established project objectives (Lock 2007, p. 402). As mentioned by Lewis (2004, p. 27), there are three techniques used in project scheduling, planning and control, these are earned value analysis, critical path method, and work breakdown structures. These techniques define the activities and their cost and time demonstrating how these activities follow each other in the project implementation process (Rory 2004, p.) Good scheduling and control system comprise of proficient scheduler, technology, and effective management (Mubarak 2010, p. 10). According to Carroll (2006, p. 19), the volatile environment of Scottish parliament building challenged the project team to adopt short planning horizons and short-term view of the project activities. The team had to often reschedule in order to incorporate new changes and these added to project difficulties. Managing project cost There existed various project management problems in the Scottish parliament building project, these problems included continuously increasing budget, change of project leaders like the project director. In managing the cost element in project management, it is first of all important to determine the optimum financial outlay that the investor is willing to spend in the project. This is often related to the project’s estimated ROI (Return On Investment). In construction projects, cost estimation role requires development of realistic construction budget, breaking down the cost budget into budgetary cost model, leading, managing, and monitoring project development to ensure that the project design reflects cost model established (Ramroth 2006, p. 141). As project starts, the costs keep increasing as different specialists get involved and materials are bought, this continues until the project is completed. In the context of Scottish parliament building, though the final outcome met the desired quality, the final cost estimates were about ten times more than the originally established budget. The project lacked sufficient information on cost estimation. Some of the information was made available to the project team very late, for instance, the need to increased security following the terrorist attack issues; as a result, cost estimates were often changed. Other reasons driving cost was newly added functions that required more space and size demand the design team and project management team to redesign and reschedule the project. The contractor could no longer fix the contract price given the various changes especially in specifications and unknown factors; this meant a cost plus contract (Ward, 2008). All these took more time increasing delay in completion of the project. Conclusion This study has explored project management as a discipline demonstrating its roles, the roles of project managers and the various features of project management. The study has selected three key elements of project management namely project planning, control and scheduling, managing cost, and managing scope and explored on the elements discussing how the elements were handled in the context of Scottish parliament building. This study shows that the project had clear goals but unclear requirements and the frequent changes required rescheduling and resulted in budget overruns (Potts 2006, p. 9). Although the project had budget overruns, it however met the desired outcomes. This study has shown that the key elements of project management are critically important in meeting the objectives and goals of project and giving the desired outcomes. References Carroll, T (2006), Project delivery in business-as-usual organizations, Gower Publishing, Ltd, Nottingham. Cleland, D & Ireland, L (2006), Project management: strategic design and implementation, McGraw-Hill Prof Med/Tech, New York. Harold, K (2005), Advanced Project Management best Practices on Implementation, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey. Heerkens, G (2007), Project Management: 24 Steps to Help You Master Any Project, McGraw-Hill, New York Professional Lewis, J (2004), Team-Based Project Management, Beard Books, Maryland. Lewis, J (2010), Project Planning, Scheduling and Control: Bringing Projects in on ... McGraw-Hill Professional, New York Lock, D (2007), Project management, Gower Publishing, Ltd, Nottingham. Mubarak, S (2010), Construction Project Scheduling and Control, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey. Potts, K (2006), Construction cost management: learning from case studies, Taylor & Francis, Oxford. Ramroth, W (2006), Project management for design professionals, Kaplan Publishing, New York. Rusell, L (2007), 10 Steps to Successful Project Management, American Society for Training and Development. Ward, G (2008), The Project Manager's Guide to Purchasing: Contracting for Goods and Service, Gower Publishing, Ltd, Nottingham. Wessels, J (2007), ‘The strategic Role of Project management’, PM World Today, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 1-9   Read More