Project Life-Cycle Management - Research Paper Example

INTRODUCTION Project management could be defined as a process where individuals apply their knowledge, skills and techniques in order to project activities to meet the project requirement (Atkinson, 1999). In other words, project management involves activities such as planning, scheduling and controlling of activities to achieve the desired objectives of the project. As defined by Cleland, and Gareis, (2006) project management is successful when it follows the process which includes initiating, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing of project to meet the project requirement. The project management institute defines project management as application of skills and knowledge along with tools and techniques to meet the project requirement (Barkley, 2006). Hamilton, (2004) divided project management into 5 components i.e. initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control and lastly closure of project. This report discusses some of the most important concepts related to project management. The report starts with defining the project life cycle management and its benefits. Then the report discusses about project organizations and project team building. Moreover, important concepts such as project scope, work breakdown structure and contingency planning have been discussed. Also the report analyzes the importance of reviewing the project and need for an integrated project management software for project management organizations. Then the researcher shares his own experience about a project in which he was involved. PROJECT LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT Project life-cycle indicates all the project phases that a project has to go through in order to be completed. In other words, it is a collection of project phases that are divided so that the project can be controlled and managed accordingly. According to Kerzner (2009) project life-cycle is divided into four phases that indicates the beginning and ending point of a project. Furthermore, according to Kerzner (2009), the first phase of project life-cycle is the initiation phase followed by project planning, project execution and project closure. Each of the phases mentioned by Kerzner (2009) is further divided into activities which need to be done to accomplish the goal of project management. In order to further elaborate the project life-cycle, each of the phases is separately presented along with the activities involved within the particular phase. Phase 1: Project Initiation The aim of this phase is to identify the problems along with the opportunities that the business could focus upon. This phase also includes solutions to the problems that a business may face. In this phase, the project manager defines the project and the opportunities that the organization could achieve by undertaking the project (Lewis, 2006). The activities within this phase are as follows; a) Developing a business case b) Undertaking a feasibility study c) Establishing term of reference d) Appointment of project team e) Setting up office f) Performing review of this phase (Lewis, 2006). Phase 2: Project Planning The second step in project life-cycle is project planning. In this phase, the manager indicates all the activities and tasks that need to be performed. In this phase, each task is linked and the manager ties the tasks with deadlines to get the task completed within the time-frame. Within this phase, the project manager identifies the number of people required for the completion of tasks along with the identification of expenses that might incur during the completion of the project undertaken. The crucial activities that are involved in this phase are as follows a) Creation of plan b) Creation of resource plan c) Creation of financial plan d) Creation of quality plan e) Creation of risk plan f) Creation of acceptance plan g) Creation of communication plan h) Creation of procurement plan i) Contracts with the suppliers j) Reviewing the success of this phase (Meredith, and Mantel, 2012) Phase 3: Project Execution and Control The third phase of project life-cycle management is the project execution and control. In this phase, the project manager being aware of the resources allocated for the completion of project builds a project team. This project team is provided with resources and limited budget for the completion of task. This phase is the longest in the whole project management life-cycle in terms of duration. In this phase, the project manager ensures the monitoring and controlling of activities to meet the requirements of the project as provided by the customer. The activities involve in this phase are as follows; a) Building the deliverables b) Monitoring and controlling time management c) Monitoring and controlling cost management d) Monitoring and controlling quality management e) Monitoring and controlling change management f) Monitoring and controlling risk management g) Monitoring and controlling issue management h) Monitoring and controlling procurement management i) Monitoring and controlling acceptance management j) Monitoring and controlling communication management k) Reviewing the phase (Meredith, and Mantel, 2012). Phase 4: Project Closure The last phase of the project management life-cycle is regarding the closure of project. In this phase, the owner and the project manager pull out the project team that was performing the activities to meet the requirement of the customers (Lock, 2007) The activities involves in this final phase are a) Perform project closure b) Review project completion Benefits of Project Management To An Organization Some of the benefits of project management achieved by organization are as follows; a) Better efficiency in delivering services b) Enhanced and improved customer satisfaction c) Development of team d) Increased risk assessment e) Quality control f) Ability to produce quality deliverables g) Time management h) Effective supervision i) Assessment of performance, and j) Estimation of future progress accurately (Milosevic, 2003) PROJECT ORGANIZATIONS AND IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP Organizations that focus on completing different projects are the ones that are named as the project organizations. These organizations routinely go through different projects and therefore it is important for such organizations to manage different projects. Leadership is important in every organization. The role of leadership is as important in project organizations as any other type of organizations. Leaders lead from the front and ensure that the whole project is completed within the time and cost. Leaders not only lead but they help team members whenever they face issues in the work. Moreover, leaders motivate the team members that further helps in improving their motivation level (Cowie, 2003). PROJECT TEAM BUILDING With the increasing concept of project management and organizations looking to accomplish different projects more successfully, there has been an increasing trend of project team. Project teams are formed for a specific project and different tasks are assigned to different members of the teams. The project manager leads to project and ensures that the overall project is completed within the time, cost and with appropriate quality. Project team may have existing employees of the company or some external human resource may be used for this particular project to form the project team. Moreover, a company may use the services of any consultants or any such firm to complete any particular task from the whole project. PROJECT SCOPE Project scope is an important part of the project management. Project scope is defined as the process by which the project is defined and it is ready to be executed. At this point, it is important to identify the risks and analyze it (Milosevic, 2003). Moreover, specific project execution approach of the project also needs to be defined at the time of defining the project scope. According to Gibson and Hamilton (1994) if the project scope is defined well and in detail then it will increase the chances of project to be successful. Therefore, project scope is critical for the success of the project and at the start, the project scope should be well defined as to what has to be achieved and how it has to be achieved. If the project scope is not defined well, then it will create ambiguity and project team will not be able to know what they have to achieve and what the deliverables of the project are. CREATION OF WORK BREAK-DOWN STRUCTURE Work break down structure is a technique that is used by the project managers to divide the overall project into smaller tasks. By creating a work breakdown structure, the project manager is able to identify the pattern of how to go about the project and which tasks need to be completed when. In addition to this, by formulating a work breakdown structure the project manager is able to identify the critical activities and the critical path (Taylor, 2008). Critical activities are those activities that cannot be delayed because if these activities are delayed then it will result in delaying the overall project duration (Phillips, 2003). Therefore these activities are said to be critical. Critical path is the path which includes all the critical activities and delay in activities in this path will result in the delay in the project duration. Project manager first of all breakdown the whole project into smaller tasks. Once tasks are identified then their estimated duration is identified. Moreover, the project manager also identifies the nature of the tasks and whether each of the smaller tasks is dependent on any other tasks or not. Thus by analyzing all these tasks, the project manager is able to divide the whole project into smaller tasks. CONTINGENCY PLANNING Contingency planning is important for the project to be completed successfully. Contingency planning allows the project manager to face different issues that emerge from time to time. Contingency planning in project management is about having emergency plans in order to face the issues that will emerge throughout the course of the project. Contingency planning may refer to having backup resources including human resource; machinery etc (Taylor, 2008). Contingency planning allows the project manager to ensure that the project continues even if there are issues (Lock, 2007). For instance, if human resource is not available then a backup should be available to overcome the issue or even human resource from tasks that can be delayed can be used to ensure that the project is completed on time. Therefore contingency planning is important in ensuring project is completed within the deadline. CONCEPT OF A PHASE REVIEW AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO SPONSORS In order to manage the project effectively, the project is divided into different smaller tasks. As the project may be of longer duration and allowing the project to go on without reviewing the progress would most of the time result in delaying the project. Therefore it is important for the project manager to review the project at different phases so that the project is completed within the duration of the project. Delays in project would lead to increase in the resources required in the project and as the resources will be hired for a longer period of time, it will result in increasing the cost of the project (Harrison, and Lock, 2004). Therefore delays in the project would increase the cost of the project and the sponsors of the project would have to pay additional costs thus it will result in higher cost and it may even end up making the project infeasible for the sponsors. NEED FOR PM SOFTWARE IN LARGE INTEGRATED PROGRAMS Project management software have become highly important particularly in large integrated programs. These software allow everyone involved in the project to be updated about the project progress and performance. Moreover, with these software the stakeholders of the project are also updated about what has been done and what is left and this allows stakeholders to know and keep themselves informed. Such software also improve the productivity and efficiency of the project as with one software project team members would be able to communicate and know the progress and any obstacles being faced. Therefore the benefits of having integrated project management software ensures regularly updating about the project progress as well as better communication among the team members. Moreover, this also allows the management to manage the project and even interfere whenever needed to ensure completion of project within the cost, time and quality (Meredith, and Mantel, 2012). MY EXPERIENCE AND INVOLVEMENT IN A PROJECT I have been involved in different types of project in my professional career. One of the projects that recently I have been involved was to analyze the feasibility of coming up with another product in the market. In order to analyze the feasibility, the project manager divided the whole project into smaller tasks and then different tasks were assigned to different project team members. Work breakdown structure was formulated for the whole project and the first task was to conduct the industry analysis. I was given the task to collect data from secondary sources and identify the trends in this part. However once I was free from this task, I was given additional responsibilities as well. The project manager was regularly analyzing the progress of the project and helping me throughout the task as well as other members throughout the project. References Atkinson, R. (1999). Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, it is time to accept other success criteria. International Journal of Project Management, 17 (6), 337–42. Barkley, B. (2006). Integrated project management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Cleland, D., and Gareis, R. (2006). Global Project Management Handbook. London: McGraw-Hill Professional. Cowie, G. (2003). The importance of people skills for project managers, Indust Commer Train, 35 (6), 256–8. Gibson, G. E., and Hamilton, M. R. (1994). Analysis of pre-project planning effort and success variables for capital facility projects. Rep. Prepared for Construction Industry Institute, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Tex. Hamilton, A. (2004). Handbook of Project Management Procedures. London: TTL Publishing, Ltd. Harrison, F., and Lock, D. (2004). Advanced project management: a structured approach‎. Surrey: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Lewis, R. (2006). Project Management. London: McGraw-Hill Professional. Lock, D. (2007). Project Management. Hampshire, England: Gower Publishing company. Meredith, J., and Mantel, S. (2012). Project Management: a managerial approach. USA: John Wiley & Sons. Milosevic, D. (2003). Project Management Toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Phillips, J. (2003). PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide. London: McGraw-Hill Professional. Taylor, J. (2008). Project Scheduling and Cost Control: planning, monitoring, and controlling the baseline. Florida: J. Ross Publishing Inc. Read More