Evolution of Project Management - Essay Example

? Contents Introduction 3 Phases of a Project 5 Conceiving a Project 5 Planning Phase 5 Implementation Phase 6 Assessment and Delivery Phase 7 Risk Management in Projects 7 Types of Change 8 Nature of Managing an IT Project 10 Recommendations 10 Reasons for Failure of NHS IT Project 11 Conclusion 11 References 12 Project Management Introduction Managing projects is a tedious and painful business, because majority of them are supposed, to be completed within specified period, to achieve certain goals and objectives. All of the projects should also be executed within the budgetary constraints as well. Furthermore, the customer should also be satisfied by the end product of the project effort (Blackstone, Cox, & Schleier 2009). Therefore, project could be defined as an activity, with presumed goals, which ought to be completed within a certain time limit, according to the desires and expectations of the sponsor. Moreover, these activities are assumed to accomplish, their objectives within financial constraints as well. In the light of above discussion the projects are conceived to attain the certain goal or set of goals in a given time frame, therefore it could be established, that the time is the most important feature of these activities. Generally, the resources are deployed in an organization to carry out its normal functions, but the nature of a firm is pretty much stable, as compared to that of a project. This fact places a premium on the timely execution of the projects. The project could also be defined, a set of interconnected tasks, which should be completed to execute, the entire project (Blackstone, Cox, & Schleier 2009). However, this observation leads to the implication of interdependence of one task on to the completion of another one. This interconnectivity compels the project management to hire experts of every area affected by the project. Next, this paper will shed some light on the interesting facts, about the revolution of project management as a science, which are as follows The process of project costing got better, because the cost overruns dropped from 180% to just 56%, in past ten years (Blackstone, Cox, & Schleier 2009) The time overruns are also decreased from 164% to 84% in the same period of time (Blackstone, Cox, & Schleier 2009) These improvements are caused, by the excessive utilization of information technology, to integrate the decision process, between various people working on the project. However management information systems helped a lot in terms of effective and efficient project execution, but they by themselves are the most difficult ones to manage. The case of NHS IT program is a real world example. The major purpose of projects is to create something new, such as new product development. Therefore, they carry a higher level of risk, which requires an able management team that was lacking in the NHS project. The projects are believed to be the only credible source of development in the dynamic world of management, because they provide, the opportunity to the business persons around the world to experiment with something new (Zdanyte & Neverauskas 2011). However the rate of failures among these activities is overwhelmingly high. This fact is partially caused by the inadequate level of knowledge about this particular field among practitioners. This trend also played a significant role in making the IT project of NHS a failure, where the large level execution was attempted without any prior planning. The modern method of project management entails, dividing a whole project into smaller ones, and then considering each one separately (Gorog 2011). In this way the commitment of resources is well divided among the various stages of the project, so it becomes relatively simple to track the investments. Another benefit of this approach is the clear and logical interdependence between the different phases of the project gets highlighted, which gives clear sense of direction to those working on it. This above mentioned approach was the ideal one to implement on the venture of information system under the supervision of NHS. By doing so, the anxiety level of the staff could be lowered concerning a change to old system to new one; such a method would have made them more receptive to the change. But the management’s ignorance of project management theories led them to a disastrous failure. Phases of a Project Now this paper will focus on the various phases constituting a traditional project Conceiving a Project A project is just a random thought in the initial stage, but these are developed to solve a problem, for this purpose product may be developed or a new managerial setup is fabricated though a well planned and implemented project (Uppal 2009). It all depends upon the nature of the problem, for which the solution is needed. The project of NHS revolved around the technical issues of the old patient record keeping system that required replacement. Planning Phase In this phase, the management decides, what activities would be included in the project, detailed time tables are fabricated and the broader aims described in the maiden phase are broken down into manageable tasks, to make things visible and all of the activities included in the project are properly sequenced and time estimates for the completion of each is tagged along, as well. It is the foundation on which the entire project will be erected (Gray and Larson 2008). Also the resources needed for the execution of the entire work plan are identified such how much investment, man power, equipment and management staff are required to make a theoretical project a reality. Contingency planning is also an integral part of this step, which includes the process of devising alternative methods to complete the task, if something goes wrong, during the implementation phase. Succession planning is also done; to make the chain of command predictable is case of any emergency. But this was neglected, during the course of NHS project. Another facet of this important step is, to compel the employees towards, accepting the project, because many of these projects include a new way of doing old things. This attribute, results in creating the element of fear, within those who are affected by them. As a result, people do not appreciate the benefits of this activity, due to this reason; the entire effort may be wasted. The case with NHS project is not a different one, because during this venture, the change from one system to another was not managed properly. Implementation Phase This phase is oriented with action, it means the plan developed during the second stage is acted upon; major part of the work is completed in this period, so it is the most painful and time consuming stage of almost every project (Gray and Larson 2008). However, this stage of NHS project was plagued, with confusion and panic, because, goals and objectives were not articulated in the planning phase. It is important to note that, employees were committed to make this venture a success, but when their efforts went unappreciated, then their morale reduced. Thus the lack of performance management was a significant reason for this unsuccessful attempt. Assessment and Delivery Phase This is the final round of the project, during this one whole of the struggle to fulfill the project needs is assessed, with regards to completion of stated aims and objectives in the early stages, some flaws are rectified (Gray and Larson 2008), at last the resultant product of the project is handed over to the customer and all resources are redeployed. But this phase cannot be implemented in the proceedings of NHS project, due to the absence of properly maintained evaluation system, to quantify the costs and benefits of the venture at hand. It is believed in the science of management that, if managers cannot see it, they cannot measure it. Risk Management in Projects Projects are the activities, which are aimed at creating something new. The resultant product is supposed to bring betterment in the operations of the concerned organization. It is highlighted that the projects are highly sophisticated activities, requiring coordination from various parts of the organization. (Marle & Vidal 2011) The most applied strategy to minimize the risk during working on the project is known as Grouping Methodology. This one identifies the risks and, then classifies them, based on Their Similarities Their probability of Occurrence Potential Ability to Damage the Project First one is based on the similarities of the risks and often helps, in identifying the means and resources to overcome any undesirable situation (Uppal 2009). For example a risk of default is closely related to the degree of liquidation in the project. In this way the possible root causes are determined, which can act like linchpins, to create a cascading disaster, spreading from one department to another. The second, measure is based on the chances of occurrence, for a specific event. For example, the chances of complete electricity failure at a project location are negligible; therefore, the resources and personnel deployed to control it should be kept at a minimal level. The third one is based on the potential ability of a threat to cause a loss for an organization (Uppal 2009). All of these methods, reveal the risks in different order, so it is management’s job to logically arrange them and then allocate necessary resources to somewhat minimize them. This methodology is the most widely used technique to control, the risks. However, the management of the project at NHS did not deploy any kind of preventive measures to minimize the risks, nor they did succession planning to keep the project going. Also they were unable to determine the expected outcomes of the project, to give a sense of direction to the effort of those who were working on the project. Types of Change According to the theories of the change management, there are two types of changes Minor Change Major Change The first type is implemented on the small scale in the organization without disturbing its normal setup, but it just fine tunes it. On other hand, second one is more subtle in nature often causing large scale modifications in firm’s operations (Padar, Pataki, & Sebestyen). The venture NHS IT project could be defined as a major change initiative, because it was aimed to transform the record keeping of various hospitals into an integrated information management system. This project was so vast, that it influenced the operations of many medical facilities across the country. The decision of implementing this new system altogether was not a logical decision, due to following reasons This sudden implementation decision, did not give anyone enough time to understand project’s objectives and its implications on the current practices Employees were not ready for a change, it was forced onto them, therefore they resisted it If the project is not according to the culture of the organization, then it will most certainly fail, because according to many scholars, the culture is the driving factor of human decision making. The same thing happened to this project. It is a norm to conceal, the information regarding patients’ details from other hospitals in the country, but this new information system in NHS project, was designed to share the data. This attribute was against the norms, thus people due to their pride rejected this preposition (Stare 2011). According to the world renowned researchers, the success of the project should be measured in the light of three fundamental standards that are Time, Excellence and Expenditure. The first measure refers to the overall period, the project has taken to complete, was it justified?, the second one is based upon the eminence, that the effort acquired during the implementation and last one is based upon the financial resources the project withdrew. The project should offer more benefits than the resources it consumed (Abrani 2003; Atkinson 1999). Nature of Managing an IT Project Now, this project highlights some differentiating aspects of IT based projects. These projects are very different in their nature from the rest, because they usually cause the culture of the organization to shift from bureaucratic system from a decentralized one (Wan & Liang 2012). The main reason of this shift is the more frequent sharing of information between the various levels of the organization. This development causes the authority to dilute almost equally across the entire organization. Therefore people often attempt to sabotage, these projects. The story of NHS project is not different. Following section will consider the recommendations that could help in the better execution of NHS project. Recommendations Following are some suggestions to effectively implement IT Projects such as NHS project in the case The NHS IT system should have been implemented in one medical facility, as a pilot test The communication among the various levels of the organization should be informal, this will help the project team to interact with the employees and gather their support Enlist, the people, who are affected by the project and then arrange resources to fulfill their needs, such as conducting trainings Implement the project phase by phase, slowly and keep explaining the logic of the project, so that people’s confusion could be mitigated. Develop key messages to communicate the current position of the project implementation Top management, should listen the suggestions of the employees to maximize the benefits of the project, this will result in more people supporting the initiative These sort of projects, should be executed, at a limited scope initially and then after analysis of the results, should be expanded to a larger scenario Reasons for Failure of NHS IT Project According to this paper the main reasons of the failure of NHS IT Project are as follows Inadequate financial planning, led to the inability to track the cash flows of the project Objectives of the project were not defined clearly, due to this, the project effort could not converge to attain the goals Project management knowledge was not implemented properly The technique of pay for performance was not applied The project’s communication system was not sufficient, therefore, this whole activity was plagued with confusion Management attempted to implement it on a vast scale, which led to the shortage of resources and also evaluation of the whole effort became impossible Change, which caused by this project was not managed Conclusion This project however, concludes that, the projects are the mean of implementation of almost every great idea, because they provide the opportunity to the managers, to implement any novel idea at a limited scope, which prevents them from substantial losses. The NHS IT project that, this paper focused on, is failed due to the insufficient knowledge of project management and change management. Furthermore, all of a sudden implementation, forced people to react negatively. On the other hand, employees could not see the benefits of switching from old record keeping method, to the new one. NHS project should be implemented in only one hospital for pilot testing; this would have helped in gaining the insight about the pros and cons of the information system. However, the abstracted reason of NHS project failure could be identified as lack of planning at all the stages of this endeavor. References ABRANI, F T, 2003, ‘Earned Value Project Management Method and Extensions’, Project Management Journal, Vol.34, no. 4, pp. 12-23. ATKINSON, R. 1999, ‘Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a Phenomenon, it is time to accept other success criteria’, International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 337-342. 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