Project Management - Principles and Strategies - Essay Example

? Project Management: Principles and Strategies Project Management: Principles and Strategies Introduction Project management refers to a discipline that involves a multitude of processes including organizing, securing, controlling resources and leading. Project managers conduct all these processes with a view to attain specified goals or objectives. A project is essentially a temporary undertaking with a distinct beginning and conclusion often constrained in terms of time and other deliverables. Projects aim at the fulfillment of unique sets of goals or objectives, typically meant to bring advantageous change or increase value. Since projects are temporary, they stand in contrast with business operations that are repetitive functional activities (Dinsmore 2005, p. 109). Therefore, the primary challenge encountered by project managers is the achievement of project objectives within the pre-established constraints. Typically, project objectives include time, cost and quality or performance. On the other hand, project management entails dealing with at least four distinct variables namely scope; cost (of resources); quality and time. Project management entails optimal allocation and integration of crucial inputs to meet pre-established objectives. Objectives of Project Management Project objectives refer to the elements that define a project or make it concrete. This means that project objectives are the purposes, which the project aims at fulfilling and within what time. The main difficulty with regard to project objectives is that usually the people involved in the project establish their own interpretations and ideas of what the project objectives should be and sometimes as time moves; the people change their interpretations and ideas (Harrison & Lock 2004, p. 34). Therefore, it is crucial to realize that project management describes project objectives through three notable elements i.e. time, cost and quality. Time, in this sense, refers to the duration allowable for the completion of the project. Cost, on the other hand, refers to the resources used to ensure the project runs smoothly. Lastly, quality or performance refers to the value or characteristic of the output delivered by the project. Notably, the equilibrium between the aforementioned project objectives sets the tone of the project by exemplifying where project priorities lie when project managers have to make decisions. This approach is beneficial since it offers intense clarity, as well as the definition of project goals and priorities. However, this approach suffers the shortcoming of becoming excessively internally focused. Simply put; this shortcoming means that projects sometimes focus excessively on outputs rather than outcomes or results. Current project management practice, therefore, includes stakeholder satisfaction as a remedy to this shortcoming (Phillips 2003, p. 37). Because projects are highly complex, project objectives must always be specific and take into consideration the requirements of all key stakeholders. Project stakeholders refer to those entities that have a vested interest in the project’s outcomes. Project stakeholders may be from within or without the organization and encompass entities that sponsor a project, those who have a constructive or destructive impact on the completion of the project or entities that gain from successful project completion (Lewis 2000, p. 185). The definition of project stakeholders occurs in the initial project scoping study. Normally, business project stakeholders include among others project leaders, team members, upper company management, project customer(s), project testers and product user groups. Variables in Project Management Variables in project management refer to elements that correlate to produce the desired outcomes. These include scope, resources, quality and time (Hamilton 2004, p. 19). Scope refers to the features intended for completion by the project while quality refers to the demands for correctness and other positive outcomes. Resources, on the other hand, refer to investments made to facilitate the timely completion of the project. Resources, in this sense, refer to personnel and equipment used in the conduct of the scope of the project. Lastly, time refers to the duration assigned for the completion of the project. Scope Essentially, when a project delivers minimal functionality, it will take a short duration. However, the issue is that the decision regarding the scope (what to or not to deliver) of the project takes place during the initial stages of project development. This demonstrates the importance of prioritization with regard to project functionality or scope from the initial stages of project development (Witzel 2003, p. 100). If mid way through the project, the team needs to cut the scope, but the only functionalities left are the crucial ones and the team spent the last few months delivering functionalities that project customers can do without, the team will have wasted precious time on trivialities. Although priorities can alter, core project functionalities tend to remain concrete. Therefore, proper project management entails intense concentration on the delivery of core functionalities. Time Time is a notable variable, over which the project team does not have control. Project management, therefore, entails the definition of tasks according to timeframes to ensure the project team completes the entire project within the desired time. Quality In project management, quality refers to requirements for accuracy and precision. In order to achieve quality outcomes, project managers must consider project risks. Risk management entails ensuring the presence of risk mitigating factors to mitigate risks involved in the project and which can cause potential damage (Witzel 2003, p. 98). Resources Project sponsors usually supply necessary resources to ensure project completion. Resources include equipment and people necessary for project completion. Relationship between the variables It is incorrect to consider project management variables as independent variables. This is because the four variables are quite dependent because any changes that occur to one variable may ultimately affect all variables. For instance, increasing the number of persons or equipment assigned to a project can reduce the duration of the project thereby hastening project completion time. However, this effect occurs only to a certain point. The principle of marginal productivity dictates that increasing any unit of production increases productivity levels to a definite point after which productivity remains the same. Resources assigned to a project past a certain level will not reduce project time. In fact, beyond a certain point, additional resources will increase the time taken to develop a system or fulfill the project scope (O'Connell 1994, p. 211). In addition, increasing the scope of the project ultimately increases the duration (time) taken for project completion. Increasing quality demands also increases the time since doing a flawless job takes a long time. Conversely, increasing quality requirements and keeping time constant demands the addition of resources or reduction of the project’s scope. Similarly, in order to decrease time, the project team must increase resources (to a certain level), decrease scope and decrease quality requirements. References Dinsmore, PC 2005, The right projects done right, John Wiley and Sons, New York. Hamilton, A 2004, Handbook of Project Management Procedures, TTL Publishing Limited, London. Harrison, FL & Lock, D 2004, Advanced project management: A structured approach?, Gower Publishing Limited, London. Lewis, JP 2000, The project manager's desk reference: a comprehensive guide to project planning, scheduling, evaluation, and systems, 2nd edn, McGraw Hill, New York. Lock, D 2007, Project Management, 9th edn, Gower Publishing Limited, London. O'Connell, F 1994, How to Run Successful Project, Redwood Press, Liverpool. Phillips, J 2003, PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide. McGraw-Hill Professional, Chicago. Witzel, M 2003, Fifty key figures in management?, Routledge, New York. Read More