Project Management Factors - Coursework Example

? PROJECT MANAGEMENT Table of Contents Introduction 3 Change Management 3 Critical Analysis of Dimensions of Change 4 Kotter’s 8 Stage Model 5 Critical Analysis of Kubler Ross Stages of Dying 7 Risk Management 9 The Process of Risk Management 10 Critical Analysis of Risk Management Process 11 Team Building 12 Critical Analysis of Team Building Process 12 Conclusion 14 References 15 Introduction Project management is a process of planning, arranging, motivating, and controlling resources so that the project can be completed within defined quality, scope, time and cost constraints. It is undertaken to meet objectives and unique goals in order to bring change and add value to the organisation (Choudhury, 1988, pp.1-2). The main challenge of project management is to accomplish all project goals and objectives. This paper will focus how the project management factors such as change management, risk management and team building contribute to the successful delivery of projects. Change management takes into consideration the critical analysis on dimensions of change, Kotter 8 stages model, psychology of change, personal and structural power, need of planning and what are the reasons for the failure of the change management. Risk management deals with managing the risk which is associated with project. This paper will mainly focus on identifying different types of risk and the key factors in managing risk, different ways to manage risk and describing the risk management process. In terms of team building, the main focus will be on the process of team building, identifying the different roles required in a team and identifying the methods of team management. All these approaches will lead to project management in order to accomplish a successful project and therefore to produce a specific result in the organisation. Change Management Organisational change management is a framework for administrating the effect of new business processes and the change in the organizational structure within an enterprise. It is an approach to shift teams and individuals from present to required future state. It refers to part of project management process where project changes are formally introduced and accepted. The goal change management is maximisation of benefits and minimisation of impact of change on workforce without distraction (Sharma, 2006, pp.23-30). The process of change management can be summarised from the following change management diagram, (Source: Sourcingmag, 2012) Critical Analysis of Dimensions of Change There are two dimensions of change management namely organisational dimensions and individual dimensions. Organisational change is motivated by business survival, potential competitive advantage, improved efficiency and external factors. The external factor like introduction of new policies or economic downturn might compel a company to change from existing state. Most of the organisational changes are created internally. All level of managers can initiate change. For instance, middle level manager can plan to reduce cost, frontline managers may apply new technology and senior managers may amalgamate the company with other organisation. Individual resistance to change depends on the organisational culture, security, economic factors and individual characteristics such as personalities, perceptions and needs. People with high need for security resist change because it intimidates secured feeling. Changes in job tasks create fear in workers when their pay is linked to productivity. They also have fear of not being able to learn a particular task. Such fear is known as the fear of the unknown (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2007, p.459). Kotter’s 8 Stage Model Kotter eight stage model provides eight processes to evade common problems that trouble even simple change efforts in an organization. Skipping a step or making a crucial mistake within the step can have a crippling effect on the success of change initiative. The eight stages can be summarised as follows: (Source: Ivey Business Journal, 2008) Establishing a sense of necessity: Understanding why there is a need for change, how the change will provide assistance to the organization and what may happen if change do not takes place, is the process how a leader establishes a sense of urgency. Create a guiding coalition: A team should be developed to signify the entire organization. The team should have expertise and they should influence others to bring reliability to the change. Create a strategy and vision: The strategy and vision behind it should be realistic, desirable, well focused, attainable and easy to communicate to others. Communicating vision: The vision should be communicated most frequently and powerfully. It should be applied to all aspects of operation i.e. from training to performance reviews. Remove obstacles: All types of barriers such as organizational structure, individual resistance to change etc are to be determined and should be removed in advance as far as possible. Create quick wins: Instead of creating one long-term goal, many short-term targets should be created to overcome resistance and build momentum. Sustainability of change: In the process, resistance to change can recur. So, efforts should be made to move the change forward by greater focus on strategic vision and encouraging employees’ empowerment. Anchor the change in corporate culture: In order to make any change stick, continuous efforts should be made to let it be seen in every aspects of the organization (Kotter, 1996, pp.35-145). Critical Analysis of Kubler Ross Stages of Dying This model is generally known ‘five stages of grief’ that describes the grief process in five stages. The critical analysis of the five stages of dying is as follows: (Source: Business balls, 2011) Denial: In this stage, people are unwilling to accept that loss has taken place or going to take place. For example: Someone is assigned a project worth 50% of credit and need it to submit it within 5 days. But due to system failure was unable to finish it by time and therefore has asked for extra time. Anger: After denial stage people will feel anger at the loss taken place. For example: After that the person get to know that the data of his project have also lost due to some problem and his anger rose because now it was impossible for him to submit the project at the extended time also. Bargaining: In this stage, people beg to undo the loss. Now the person has asked his faculty member to allot him extra two days for the completion of the project as he need to do it all over again and in return he promised to deliver the subsequent project in advance. Depression: Once it become clear that bargaining is not going to undo the loss, people go under into a depression stage. It is like defeating factor for the person after he got to know that nothing is going to change the fact that he will be not evaluated for this particular project. Acceptance: In this stage, people accept that the loss has occurred and it cannot be undone. Finally he accepted that a huge loss has occurred to him and nothing can be done to correct it (Ross and Kessler, 2005, pp.7-24). Risk Management Risk management is the process of identifying the potential and existent risk in the project. It involves the way of how to respond to each of them. The objective of risk management is to monitor, minimise, and control the probability of occurrence of adverse events. Analysis of Risk is very important in order to examine the risk associated with the project. It follows a well planned process to hedge risk. The process of risk management involves identifying and continuously monitors risk. Identifying risk: The risk which are related to the organizations are financial risk, technical risk, political risk, operational risk and human resources also comes under this category because they may also provide some kinds of threats. Monitoring risk: This is very essential for the success of the risk management strategy. If the strategy does not work in a significant manner then it can be identified through the monitoring process. The Process of Risk Management Risk management can be categorised into four general steps as follows: (Source: World West Investments, 2013) In risk management, assessment of risk involves identifying an activity which constitutes a potential risk. The second stage evaluates risk and focus on strategies for risk transfer. This is applicable in terms of insurance policy. For instance, when an individual buys insurance, the financial risk is transferred to third party entity. Thus, in order to manage or mitigate the risk by restraining the amount of risky activity or avoiding such activity constitutes the third stage of risk management. For instance, installing smoke detectors and wearing a seat belt are ways of risk management and reduction. The final step in risk management is risk measurement and retention i.e. accepting the risk. For example, an individual may be unable to afford health insurance because of limited wealth, so he is accepting his risk. Critical Analysis of Risk Management Process Risk management involves establishing goals after identifying the risk associated with project. It signifies establishing the organizational, strategic and risk management in context of the organization and identifying the opportunities and constraints of the operating environment. Risk management involves identifying the risks that are most possibly going to affect the activity and the achievement of the goals of the organization. After the potential risks are identified, the project manager has to work on the most critical risk and strategise how to manage and reduce the impact of such risk. Risk can be managed only after critically evaluating the most pessimistic and most optimistic outcomes associated with risk. After analysis is completed, the risks can be compared against the earlier recognized and approved tolerable risk criteria. The management of risks involves process of developing a cost effective alternatives for managing the risks. Such alternatives include avoiding, mitigating, sharing and retaining the risk. The identified risks associated with the project must be continuously monitored through periodic and formal review. The review needs to consider industry practices and current regulatory environment. Finally, risk management must be continuously communicated using reporting and consulting with stakeholders of the organisation (Turner, 2007, pp.427-449). Consider an example where in order to construct a nuclear plant the risk content will be determined after evaluating the technical aspects of the design, electricity market, financing of the project as well as the operation of the new plant. Risk identification will be in terms of design risk i.e. plant will be designed before or not, risk of cost overruns and so on (Conrow, 2003, pp.21-33). Other risk associated includes planning, time scheduling and financial risk. Risk analysis will be in terms of design risk when the reactor type is entirely planned with all essential drawings. The associated risks of cost overruns include determining material costs and proper supply chain management. Risk evaluation in terms of design risk is based entirely on the presented design documentation where no larger variations are expected. Larger deviation from planned process results in expensive delays. Risk management will be done by choosing different alternatives to minimise the impact of risk. Team Building Organizations are becoming unstable and dynamic. Team building is a job designing process in which employees of the organization are observed as members of independent teams in spite of as individual workers. It has given rise to increased complexity in terms of skills required through team composition and also identifying the degree of risk involved. The main objective of a team is to accomplish long term goal of organisation (Quick, 1992, p.3). Critical Analysis of Team Building Process A team is built after considering the ideas of each employee. A project manager has to be aware of the unspoken feelings of the employees. This is because in order to resolve minor disputes between the team members and to point towards the team’s ultimate goals the ideas of every team member must be considered. But after taking the feedback, it is up to the project manager to decide whether to accept or not accept the proposals by individual team members (Payne, 2001, p.75). Such decision must be taken by keeping in mind the overall objective. The next task for team building is to be clear when and how to communicate with each other. In order for a team to be successful it is very important that the individual team members communicate with each other. It is the duty of the project manager to encourage cooperation and trust among employees in a team. Team members should be encouraged to express and share information with each other. Such a strategy drives the team to successfully achieve its goals. The team members should also work on innovating alternative solutions which will reduce the risk of project. In order to facilitate communication frequent questions should be asked by the team member and help should also be offered by every member. The most important aspect of team building is to establish goals. After establishing goals team values and performance should be evaluated. In order to assess the performance of the team the project manager should know what the standards of success and how it should be evaluated. The team members should also understand their responsibilities properly. This will ensure greater productivity and better decisions. In order to control and manage the team, the project manager should place ground rules for the team members. These are the norms which should be established to guarantee efficiency and success. The project manager should promote listening and brainstorming by encouraging debate and therefore inspiring creativity and this will lead to better results. In order to monitor the team members’ performance a research committee should be establish. The committee will inspect all relevant issues and deliver copies of reports to the stakeholder of project and the project manager. Such feedbacks by the committee will help the project manager to control the activities of team members and also help to reach the overall goal of the organisation (Heldman, Baca, and Jansen, 2007, p.338-344). Conclusion The project management is an important factor for accomplishing the goals of the organisation. Project management is a process of planning, arranging, motivating, and controlling resources so that the project can be completed within defined quality, scope, time and cost constraints. The main constraints that a project manager faces are time, cost or budget, project quality, and the scope of project. The objective of project management is achieving all the goals of the project. This is done by identifying and assessing the risk of project and then by allocating scarce resources of the organisation accordingly to a feasible solution that optimises the efficiency of project. Thus project management involves a scope statement consisting of the project’s objectives, building team, identifying deliverables and breaking down work structure. In order to make the project successful, correct estimation of determining resources is very important. Critical analysis of the Change Management through its dimensions of change, Kotter 8 stages model, psychology of change, personal and structural power and need of planning shows that people can learn new behaviour and skill. Risk management through its different factors such as identifying different types of risk and the key factors in managing risk, different ways to manage risk and through describing the risk management process shows that how to manage potential risk in the project. In the same way, critical analysis of the team building process, different roles required in a team and identifying the methods of team management shows that how an effective team leads to the successful project management. All three approaches are undertaken to meet objectives and unique goals in order to bring change and add value to the organisation. They all together contribute towards the successful delivery of projects. References Choudhury, S. R., 1988. Project Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Conrow, E. H., 2003. Effective Risk Management: Some Keys to Success. United States: AIAA. Heldman, K., Baca, C., and Jansen, P., 2007. PMP Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide. United States: John Wiley & Sons. Hellriegel, D. and Slocum, J. W., 2007. Organizational Behaviour. 11th edition. United States of America: Cengage Learning. Kotter, J. P., 1996. Leading Change. United States of America: Harvard Business Press. Payne, V., 2001. The Team-Building Workshop: A Trainer’s Guide. United States: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Quick, T. L., 1992. Successful Team Building. United States of America: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Ross, E. K. and Kessler, D., 2005. On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss. New York: Simon and Schuster. Sharma, R., 2006. Change Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Turner, J. D., 2007. Gower Handbook of Project Management. 4. 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