Project Risk Analysis and Project Management - Essay Example

? Project Management affiliation Project Management Project running and completion requires a lot of expertise and well formulated strategies. If the initiation stage of a project fails, the closing part will be unlikely to have positive results. According to Kerzner (2010), before any project is launched, proper consultations should be made. These consultations range from the staff, procurement process, project management and, most importantly, a well budgeted set of operations. It is not professional to base a whole project on estimates. In an argument by Bartlett (2004), basing a project on financial estimates is disregarding the elasticity of the corporate market. If a project greatly involves construction operations, the procurement process should be well managed and developed. In construction, quality matters. If the quality assurance is not provided, the project prospects will not be achieved. Apart from the procurement process, the staff at large should be well placed to support the whole project. If need be, organizations are advised to outsource high risk operations. Outsourcing increases the expertise employed in the project and it shares the risk involved in the whole project. The paper will focus on the Woody project and how well it was managed. It will provide an insight into the procurement process in the project. The startup was poorly managed in this project. In appropriately managed startups, organizations usually have effective production processes. After every project the startup usually determines whether or not the project was successful. Managers and owners have the obligation to inspect the results of the outcomes to determine whether or not it is according to the specified plan. In words by Bartlett (2004), managers and owners of organizations provide the first determination on whether or not the project was successful. However, this is usually not an assurance of success. If the production process fails to kick off as expected, the project is viewed as failure. In the case of Woody, the owners of the building did not inspect the manner in which the construction was conducted. After this, the setting off of the production process was very poor. Every single operation was behind schedule as the effects affected the company’s consumer base. It was poor management in that the owners of the company did not come up with any completion procedure after a period of years. There was no plan whatsoever that was formulated to foresee the transition from the old operation system to the new one. If the project were properly managed, there would be a procedure for inspection of the building by the owners, acceptance of the new building, testing of the new machines and the launching of the production process. The result of this poor management was harsh. The usual maintenance process carried out after every two weeks did not take place in time. Consumer deliveries were delayed by a period of two weeks. Several contractors also canceled the contracts citing insecurity and exposure to high levels of risk. The sale of finished goods also declined significantly. After the period of two years it was clearly evident that the project was poorly managed. The results seen at the startup after the completion of the project were diminishing. According to Wirick (2011), the success of a project is measured by its ability to comfortably upgrade the production process. In the Woody project this is not evident. To worsen the situation, its normal production process was negatively affected. Looking at Woody two years ago, the production process was much better. The procurement process in the Woody project was also tampered with. This can be translated to supply of goods of low quality. Kerzner (2010) argues that the supply of goods during a project is also a key to its success. In a proper managed project the procurement process is easily monitored and certified. In Woody’s case, the payment made to suppliers was not effectively consulted. Paying for services in consideration of hours may be inappropriate by a big company. The supplier may be given the freedom to breach the timeline based on the project. If the manager of the Woodley project were cautious about time, they would not agree to wage payment based on hours. For the success of many projects to be achieved, payment is usually effected after completion of the project. In this procedure, the payment is made after the testing and quality assurance foe the goods or services provided. Another evidence of poor management is the fact that the staff was not satisfied with the changes made in the organization. In evidence, the expenditure in the company exceeded the income; the levels of debts became high. If this scenario carried on, the organization would face the risk of going bankrupt. This is because there was no completion of the projects. In this case there was wastage of funds since the contractors were paid full wages in a project they did not complete. The work efficiency was reduced significantly since the completion of the project was not 100 percent. According to Wirick (2011), incomplete projects cost organizations in terms of planning and wastage of financial and raw materials. After every completion of a project, there should be performance measurement. In this measurement, mangers and organization’s owners should provide guidelines in which the project will be analyzed. The guidelines should never be compromised howsoever. If a project satisfies all the needs it is required to, it is perceived as a success indicator. Another success indicator is the ability of a project to reach completion within the allocated financial budget. If a project exceeds its financial budget, it may be difficult to have a successful startup. According to Bartlett (2004), projects should be allocated funds slightly above the estimated cost. The formulated budget should be strictly adhered to at each level of the project. If it is successful, then it is a success indicator. In the Woody project the priority of determining the success of the project would have started from the managers’ analysis of the project. Additionally, the budget of the project would have not exceeded the set aside budget. Lastly, all the stakeholders in the organization would have agreed on the launching of the project. References Bartlett, J. (2004). Project risk analysis and management guide. New York: APM Publishing Limited. Kerzner, H. (2010). Project management: Best practices: Achieving global excellence. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Wirick, D. (2011). Public-sector project management: Meeting the challenges and achieving results. New York: Wiley. 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