Project Planning - Research Proposal Example

Project management Table of Contents Project Planning 3 Project Scheduling, Estimating and Cost Control Techniques 5 Measuring project performance 7 Project Change Control Procedures 9 Project Planning Project Planning is the initial stage of project development. To accomplish the objectives of the project, it is necessary to develop an effective planning which will help to accomplish the project objectives within the specified time frame. To successfully complete the project, the major activities will be identified and after estimating the supply or availability of the resources, the time that would be taken to complete each activity would be estimated accordingly. The work breakdown structure (WBS) will be adopted to break the major activities into smaller work components which will help in readily completing the major block of work. As the family is eager to get the work done within a shorter period of time, so as a project manager, measures have to be taken to properly schedule the project and execute it accordingly in order to adhere to the project deadlines. This project plan would help in optimally utilizing the available resources. Designing WBS in a proper fashion will help to understand the cost control techniques and the scheduling techniques that are needed to be adopted to ensure a smooth flow of operations in order to complete the project within the pre-determined time. Proper planning forms the backbone of any process or task that needs to be accomplished successfully. Planning would help to understand the resources that would be needed to complete the project and whether those resources are available or not. It would also enable in understanding the risks that are associated in completing the project within the stipulated time frame. To meet the project deadlines, the suppliers need to be identified. Local suppliers should be contracted to avoid the possibility of construction bottlenecks resulting from the non availability of raw materials at the required point of time. Distant suppliers should not be contracted as this would incur additional costs and make the accomplishment of the project objectives difficult within the specified timeframe. As a project manager, to make the project a successful one, the relationship with the suppliers should be strengthened. Measures should be taken so that the suppliers get to know when the stock has to be replenished and they can accordingly supply the raw materials which would ensure smooth flow of the construction process. Planning should be done to implement quality checks at the right time so that all the suppliers supply the same quality of raw materials. Being the project manager, it needs to be acknowledged that poor raw materials can pose as a potential blockage to the successful completion of the project. Usage of poor raw materials can lead to the crash of the newly constructed extension of the building. This might harm the inhabitants of the house and cause serious damages. So as a project manager, stringent quality checks must be installed to ensure that such type of incidents does not occur. Moreover, as the company has planned to outsource the work related with the fitting of Corgi boiler, extensive research should be done to identify the contractors to whom this work can be outsourced. Tenders should be invited and the contractor who has quoted the lowest price and at the same time offers quality services, should be chosen as the right person to do the necessary electric works. The nature of skilled workforce required to meet the project deadlines should be identified and the availability of such skilled workers must be cross checked. As the project is of shorter duration, to control costs, it was decided that daily wage labourers would be used to complete the work. Some workers would be kept reserved so that, if one of the masons' fails to turn up one day it would not create a barrier as far as the completion of the required work on that day is concerned. For developing a proper planning about the execution of the project, a thorough feasibility study of the project should be carried out. This would help to indentify the potential risks that the project might face in the coming days and the methods that should be adopted to mitigate the risks. This would also help in financial planning and framing a budget accordingly to cover up all the expenses accordingly. Care should be taken to ensure that the processes and techniques applied for executing the project are fair practices. The company should further take into account that it does not get involved in any legal hassles as that will damage the market reputation of the company. Project Scheduling, Estimating and Cost Control Techniques Project scheduling plays a decisive role in determining the success of the project. Project scheduling helps in arranging the activities in a systematic order which would certify the completion of the project within the estimated time frame. This is mainly done to eliminate idle time and any sort of confusion while the project is being executed. With the help of proper project scheduling, the resources that will be required to complete the project would be estimated and the time that will be needed to complete each activity would be determined. While executing the project, as a project manager, the most important task will be to ensure that the activities get completed within the specified time period. This will help to meet the cost estimates and no unnecessary cost has to be borne by the company. The project scheduling will be followed by proper controlling techniques to ensure that the work activities are completed within the permissible levels without any deviation. Otherwise this might pose as a major blockage to the completion of the project. Project scheduling mainly enables to estimate the proper time that would be required to complete each sub-tasks and the number of sub-tasks that would lead to the completion of a major task. This is followed by proper allocation of resources and the adoption of suitable techniques and processes which will help the project to be completed within the specified time frame. Such a scheduling can be effectively done with the help of Gnatt Chart or Activity Networks (CPM or PERT analysis)( Demeulemeester & Herroelen 13). The PERT analysis will help to estimate the exact number of tasks required to successfully complete the project and the mutual dependencies of each task on the preceding or the succeeding tasks. CPM technique can also be used to estimate the shortest time within which the project can be successfully accomplished. This method also enables to understand the 'critical' activities which are vital for the smooth completion of the project. With the help of CPM method, the most desirable network of activities that should be followed to meet the project deadlines within the shortest time period can be easily identified (Hutchings, J. F. 55). These techniques would help in properly scheduling the activities. With the help of such scheduling techniques, the costs that would be incurred in executing the project could be estimated. Being a project manager, care has to be taken to ensure that the costs borne in meeting the project objectives do not cross the permissible limit. To ensure that, it would be necessary to adopt proper cost controlling techniques like financial budgeting. It is always found that costs savings that are estimated during the planning and scheduling stage of a project are lower than when the actual processes are implemented. This is mainly because these processes precede the actual implementation of a project. So, care should be taken to lower such deviations. This would enable in adhering to the project plan and would help in successfully completing the project within the pre-determined time schedule. To avoid the same, effective budgeting should be done and reserves should be maintained to ensure that future contingencies can be met suitably. Inventory control techniques have to be adopted to minimise the costs of stocking large amounts of raw materials in the warehouses. This can be done by maintaining strong ties with the suppliers. JIT (Just-in time) approach can be adopted which would enable the company to meet its project deadline without incurring huge costs in maintaining inventory levels. The project can be accomplished even on maintaining zero levels of inventory. Effective cost controlling is necessary for the successful completion of the project and as a project manager this step should be given due consideration. Measuring project performance Project performance and monitoring is essential to track down the progress of a project. It helps to understand whether the project is progressing according to the planning that was initially done. To measure the project performance, quality checks can be set up in order to ensure that the project complies with the specifications that were established during the planning phase. This would enable the company to measure the deviation in the actual processes from the planned processes. This would help the company to take a proactive stance and adopt measures which would enable the project to meet the pre-determined deadline and adhere to the cost structure. Without such quality control checks, it would not be possible to interpret whether the project would be completed within the scheduled time frame .This would make it impossible to adopt suitable measures by which the deviations can be controlled and would lead to delay in the completion of the project. Another method known as the 'earned value' technique can be adopted to meet the project deadline. This technique would help the project manager to define the scope of the project and understand whether the project is progressing in the desirable manner. This process would also help the project manager to utilise the available resources effectively which would help in maximising the outcome. This method would help in tracking the progress of the project and thus enable to adopt measures by which the project would get completed with the scheduled time frame. Moreover, it should be observed that whether the activities or parallel running activities get completed within the allocated time. Effective time management is essential for the successful completion of the project. At every step, strict vigilance needs to be taken to ensure that the project complies with the pre-identified standards. No compromise should be done as far as the quality of raw materials is concerned. The company should adopt measures to undergo a thorough investigation in order to ensure that no quality difference exists in the raw materials supplied by its different suppliers. All the suppliers should be strictly instructed to abide by the quality standards specified by the company. Periodical checks should be carried out by the company to ensure that the suppliers adhere to such quality standards. Moreover, being a project manager, monitoring needs to be done in order to ensure that the electric fitters are carrying out their work properly as poor electric work and negligence on their part could result in short circuits. This could at times become fatal. So, checks should be done to ensure that the wiring is properly done otherwise that would affect the reputation of the company. The project manager should adopt measures in order to ensure that systematic vigilance is carried out at regular intervals which would add to the effective implementation of the project. In order to effectively complete the project within the specified time frame, ABC analysis can be done to categorise the activities in order of their importance. This would also help in proper scheduling and allocating time to the respective activities. While monitoring, the most vital tasks would be strictly observed in order to minimise the deviation from the laid down standards as far as possible. This would help the project manager to accomplish the tasks within the specified time frame and would eliminate any possibilities of deviation. Project Change Control Procedures Any change can be brought about within the project plan at the time of execution. This can mainly happen due to the shortage of raw materials from the local suppliers or due to sudden weather changes which might pose as a potential barrier to the completion of the project. To ensure that such disruptions do not block the smooth progress of the project, it is absolutely necessary to bring about certain changes within the project. But care should be taken that such changes do not hinder the completion of the project within the pre-determined time frame. To ensure that such changes does not affect the project, suitable quality checks should be adopted and measures should be taken to offset the time taken in adopting a sudden change by adjusting it with the other following processes. As a project manager it needs to be acknowledged that if changes are not controlled with the help of suitable measures it might lead to delay in completion of the project and might add to unnecessary costs that have to be borne by the company. This would also affect the reputation of the company in the long run. References Demeulemeester , E. L. & Herroelen, W. Project scheduling: a research handbook. Springer, 2002. Hutchings, J. F. Project scheduling handbook. CRC Press, 2003. Read More