Project Management and Sociocultural Aspects - Essay Example

? Project Management Review I The technical dimension represents the ‘science’ of the project while the sociocultural dimension represents the art of managing the project. In other words, the former indicates the technical skills while the latter indicates social skills. The successful implementation of the project requires meeting both the technical and sociocultural aspects. The technical side includes identifying the scope of the projects, WBS, schedules, resource allocation, baseline budgets, and status reports. On the other hand, sociocultural aspects are leadership, problem solving, teamwork, negotiation, policies, and customer expectation. While the former deals with system, the latter is related to environment and culture. It is necessary to develop a clear project scope statement that connects the project and customer. In addition, it is necessary for planning and control. Thereafter, there is proper work breakdown that will enable proper planning and monitoring of the progress of the project. As a result, the project and its changes will be properly documented and traceable. On the other hand, as Larson, and Gray, point out, the sociocultural aspects deal with developing a social system that incorporates the talents of various people working together to complete a project (14). It is the sociocultural aspect that develops a project culture that enhances teamwork and ensures high level of motivation. In addition, it should ensure provisions to quickly solve problems. Also, the dimension takes into consideration the interaction between the project and external environment. In total, it is about developing conducive social network of skilled professionals. II The three main elements which are to be balanced continuously in a project are time, cost and performance. In fact, in a project, these three constraints are not independent. Instead, they interact each other. For example, if resources are added to shorten the time period, there will be a rise in the project cost. For example, every project is evaluated according to “accomplishment, cost, and time period” (Larson, and Gray, 5). So, it becomes the most important function of a project management to balance the tradeoffs between time, cost and performance as a way to satisfy the customer in the end. III There are three basic ways to organize a project team. They are functional organization, dedicated project teams, and matrix structure. In the functional organization, the project is managed within the traditional, functional departments of an organization. Some examples are the departments of R&D and IT. This form is usually selected when the number of functional departments in the project is just one or two. In addition, in this system, one department is mainly responsible for implementation and it is this department that plays the most important role in the project. However, this system many not be suitable when a project is complex that requires a lot of independent decision making. However, a dedicated project team is usually an independent organizational unit, and it has members who devote their full time effort on the project. This team is suitable when the project is complex and large which requires a considerable number of functional disciplines, often more than six. The last one is matrix structure of organization. For this team, multiple functional units within the company are incorporated for people to be team members as needed. This form is often adopted when the project size is medium; that is bigger for the traditional functional organization and smaller for a full time dedicated team. In other words, when there are four to six functional disciples in a project, the matrix system is favored. The advantages of the traditional functional organization are flexibility, in-depth expertise, easy project transition, and lack of changes. However, the issues associated with this form are lack of focus due to fewer obligations, poor interaction among functional units, slow speed, and lack of motivation and responsibility. The advantages of dedicated team are simplicity, speed, cohesion, and better cross-functional integration. However, the issues associated with the structure are many. The first one is the difficulty in post-project transition as the members who worked full-time on the project may be left jobless. Also, there are issues like high expenditure, internal strife, and less technological expertise. In the case of matrix structure, the advantages are efficiency, better project focus, better post-project transition, and flexibility. However, on the other side, as Larson and Gray remind, there are issues like dysfunctional conflict, infighting, stress, and less speed (66-67). IV In all projects, there are four phases, namely ‘definition, planning, execution and delivery’ (Larson and Gray, 6). In the definition stage, the specifications of the project are defined, project objectives are established, teams are formed, and important responsibilities are assigned. In the second, planning stage, the project reaches its second level where the scheduling, quality level, project outcome, beneficiaries, cost, and all other specifications are set. The third stage is executing stage. At this stage, the actual work takes place. The product is produced. Time, cost, and specifications are all used to control the production. At this stage, the success of the project is assessed including cost, time, and quality. The last stage is delivery. Here, the product reaches the customer. This may also involve customer training and transferring documents. IV The three project type classifications are organizing projects within the functional organization, organizing as dedicated teams, and organizing in matrix arrangement. The first one is arranged within the existing functional department hierarchy of the organization. However, when there are more than one functional specialty skills, it would require delegating different parts of project to different functional departments. Here, there will be established channels for communication and coordination. The responsibility of the total project will be vested in the unit that has the greatest role in the project. This is used when a single functional area plays a central role in the project. The second is organizing project team as dedicated teams. This is often adopted when the work spreads over a number of various departments. This form of project organization is often called a ‘pure’ project organization, and this form of organization often has a full time project manager to lead the group; and this kind of teams is often seen in construction firms, consulting firms and advertising agencies (“Lecture Notes”). In the matrix type, a horizontal project management structure is developed along with the standard vertical hierarchy of functional departments. This form of organization is often used when it becomes necessary to establish a new manufacturing facility for which it is necessary to smarten up an existing production system, which involve, ‘design, procurement, installation, test, and start-up support’ (“Lecture Notes”). VI According to the given information the LL Company has been manufacturing optical scopes for hunting rifles for the past 20 years. In addition, LL Company is the market leader at present. For the company, starting the production of a top quality binocular is like adding one more product to the existing range of products. In this case, the best form of project management will be matrix management. This is especially so because it is said that matrix is the best form of organizational structure for the development of a new product within an existing product line. From the information provided, it seems that the company may temporarily require the cooperation of a number of various skills from its three or four functional disciplines, to reach the stage of execution. Thereafter, some of the project members will be freed from the task. So, it seems that as the requirement is temporary for some of the members, and as the project requires only three or four functional disciplines, the structure for the team would be matrix. In addition, even if it is necessary to develop a new manufacturing facility for which the entire procedure ranging from ‘design, procurement, installation, test, and start up’ are to be refurbished, the best structure for the project team is matrix (“Lecture Notes”). However, it is necessary to have clear idea about the differences in the design and production of binocular and optical scopes for hunting rifles to develop a clear strategy about the kind of team to be prepared. Without proper understanding of the various functional disciples involved in the production of optical scopes and binoculars, it is rather difficult to make a final decision on the structure of the project team. Works Cited Larson, Erik. W and Gray, Clifford, F. Project Management: The Managerial Process. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2008. Print.  Lecture Notes. Read More