Product Lifecycle Management - Essay Example

Project Management Project Management In an industry, the project life cycle management is the process of managing the complete lifecycle of a product. The lifecycle of a product entails its inception, the engineering design and the manufacture, finally is through the service and its disposal. The product lifecycle management (PLM) takes up people, business process and systems, data and provides the backbone of product information within its company and its extended enterprise. The project lifecycle is comprised of four phases. The first phase is the initiation. After initiation, planning comes the second while execution, which may include controlling and monitoring, comes third. Fourth is the evaluation phase. The initiation phase entails definition of the scope, objectives, purpose, deliverables, resources, the structure of the project and the timescales while in the planning phase, there is the creation of a comprehensive project plan. This project plan is essential to the project since it acts as the reference for the project manager throughout the project for the control and monitoring cost, time and quality. In the project execution phase, the project manager controls and monitors the project delivery while the project team produces the deliverables. Once the consumer accepts the deliverables, the phase review is carried out to ensure that the project objectives have been achieved. The project is therefore ready for closure. After its closure, an evaluation should be carried out to determine the overall success of the project and find out whether the stated benefits in the original business case have been realized. The management should finally document any lessons learned for future projects (Griffin, 2010). Benefits of project Management to an Organization Project management is an important activity among the overall business operations. In many organizations, team work has been a common aspect due to the great need for methods that would diagnose and solve problems that arise within the organization. Forecasting has also been applied in an attempt to take care of the arising problems in an organization before they have truly developed. On the other side, the project management has got many benefits to an organization. First, it provides and ability for the utilization of the forecasting methods in an organization. The organization therefore obtains an ability to look at situations by using various driven computer applications. Project management enables better teamwork. In any organization, teamwork is an important part of the entire aspect of its success. The more employees work together, the more likely the success of the organization. Management in this case promotes the process of goal setting. This significantly increases the productivity and the customer satisfaction. Project management helps leaders in an organization through the display of the information in a way that is easy to see and understand. The management of the project is instrumental in helping to come up with formidable solutions. Additionally, project management utilizes the problem solving process. Here, problems are identified, relevant options are weighed and lastly solutions are found. This therefore makes it easier to determine areas that require improvements and address them. Project management ensures that all processes are smoothly run with an identification of any possible problem. The management takes up full responsibility of the entire project. This includes the management of all resources, monitoring and control of all workers and the processes. Project management is therefore a vital aspect as it ensures the success of the project (Westland, 2007). Project Organizations and the Importance of Leadership and Sponsorship Project organizations are structures that describe the relationship between project roles. Any project based organization is good at delivering its projects because the staff is allocated to the projects. Each project is allocated a specific staff who should report to the manager. Leadership in an organization begins with a steering committee which must be set and become operational from the beginning of the project. It is responsible for taking all decisions about the project. The committee should be comprised of the senior managers from the organization. The chairman of the committee has the ultimate responsibility for the entire project. At the same time, the project manager should lead the project on a daily basis and take full accountability for delivering project. Proper project leadership is described to possess the ability to: Build the right team Establish an atmosphere of trust Give orders for the team Monitor and issue feedback Keep an open communication and, Keep the main goal of the project clearly in mind. After the project manager, the project sponsor comes next as the most influential person in the project. Project sponsorship includes the identification of the project as well as it definition. A sponsor in this case holds the responsibility of the business case of the project. The sponsor can as well cancel the project in case the business case does not justify the project. Every project should have a sponsor who ensures the accountability for the project benefits realization. Sponsorship also ensures an oversight of the project management and carries out management of the senior stakeholder. Before any project is started, it is vital to find a committed sponsor who has enough influence of the organization. The project sponsor is very helpful in assisting in overcoming of the organizational roadblocks every time they arise (Chapman et al. 2012). Project Team Building, including Techniques of Successful Team Building Building a good team is the most important thing a project manager can do to ensure the success of the project. A project team is the group that would work together to execute the tasks that are necessary in meeting the requirements of the consumers. In order to build an effective team, you need to consider some ideas. The leader can spend much time listening to what people are saying and getting to see things from their perspective. By so doing, the leader connects with the team members and forms a bond between them. This develops a positive feeling towards the leader and thus works hard to reach for a common goal. Another technique is by having a vision with a purpose for everybody in the project. A leader needs to ask all his team members about their opinions and desires whether for their own or for entire group. This helps understand what brings them together and ensures talking in a language that they can understand and not talking above their heads. As a leader, one needs to develop a feeling that the employees can perform more even beyond their capabilities and develop much confidence. A leader should realize that he don’t have all the right answers and thus incorporate the views of the employees. By so doing, the team members feels accountable for their actions and thus strive to make things work. Techniques for Project Scope Definition and the Importance of Managing Scope throughout a Project A project scope is an outline of what work shall be done or accomplished as part of the project. It also outlines what should be left out as part of the current project. The scope is well analyzed with the consideration of such techniques and tools as; product analysis; which is performed for comprehensive understanding in the product breakdown system analysis engineering and analysis, value engineering and analysis as well as the functional analysis. Alternative identification; this technique is used in generating different approaches of performing the work. This may include; brainstorming, prototype among others. Expert judgment;, this provides inputs for the creation of a detailed project scope statement. Stakeholder analysis; this technique identifies the stakeholders needs and influence and their expectations. This analysis helps to select, quantify and prioritize the wants, needs and the expectations in order to ascertain the requirements. Project scope management entails the process required to ensure that the project includes all the required work to complete the project. It is very important as ensures the understanding of the entire process which leads to the success of the project. It is no doubt that the most common reason that projects fail is as a result of poor scope definition. Creation of a work breakdown structure, and how and project manager breaks down the overall project into packages Complex projects can be divided into simpler tasks which are manageable. Project managers use the work breakdown structure for simplifying the project. In this method, much larger lager and complex tasks are broken down to manageable portions of work. The managers begin by identifying the main deliverables of the project. In this process, of breaking down the tasks, the managers can break them into various levels. They can detail a complex task into ten sub-tasks while the same task can also be detailed into twenty sub-tasks. It is found out that there is no hard and fast rule on how one should breakdown the complex tasks. In breaking down the overall project to small packages, managers are guided by some few rules. An example is the “two weeks” rule which argues that nothing should be broken down to less than two weeks’ worth of work. The managers should therefore ensure that the smallest task is at least two weeks long. Another rule states that no task should go below eight hours of work while it should not go beyond eighty hours, the 8/80 rule (Rossberg and Olausson, 2012). Contingency Planning This aims at preparing the organization to adequately respond towards an emergency as well as the associated impacts. The development of a contingency plan takes making advance decisions about the human and the financial resources management and coordination. It takes up getting aware of all processes that are involved in running the project. In this case contingency planning becomes a management tool that involves all sectors that can help in ensuring timely and provision of a compassionate aid to the neediest stakeholders. It is a backup plan that is activated in the event of a disaster. It serves to curb any disaster that arises to disrupt the production of the company and that may put employees into danger. The main aim of the plan is to minimize disruption and safeguard data. In this way, the project is kept on schedule with minimal or no disruption in its functioning. Phase review and why it is Important to Sponsors At the end of every phase in a project, a checkpoint, phase review, is conducted to ensure that the project has ultimately achieved its set objectives and as planned. A phase review is performed before the project proceeds to the next phase. In this case, the current status of the project is documented and a request is issued to the project sponsor. Phase reviews are conducted at the end of every project phase: initiation, planning and project execution. At the end of the project closure phase, it is very important to complete a phase review form which approves the closing of the project as covered in the project closure report. The schedule should be reviewed to determine whether the activities in the current phase were completed in time. Review on the expenses should also be conducted to identify the current expenditure of the project with comparison to the planned expenditure indicated in the financial plan for the project. Conducting a formal phase review is an important part a project life cycle. This is because they provide a regular detailed assessment of the project to date. It is a significant aspect to the project sponsor as it helps him/her to understand the overall status of the project at every milestone. The review helps the sponsor to act on the status of the project. Need for PM Software in large Integrated Programs For more integrated programs and in large scope projects, managers may want a program that would assist them in all key project areas. The Project Management software helps in setting the budget, fill in the task list and include all the task details. It helps in setting up schedules and monitors all aspects of the entire project. The most significant aspect of the software is that it handles numerous details. On a large integrated program, this software would be a beneficial from the organizational perspective. This software allows the managers to clear their minds of extraneous information and lowers their stress level. The software program should be allowed to manage the wealth of details so that managers can handle the problems of the people and make the big decisions. This program is important to the overall project management organization since it can be used to figure out more complicated programs in less than an hour (Rosenau and Githens, 2011). The finest software systems that can be worth the abundance of managers capabilities are significant in running the business in an organization. The software can serve a great purpose in conducting schedules, in task management listing and in personal lists. It assists in the Gantt charts and in other graphs and diagrams and in the budgeting capabilities. It can be applied in accounting, in word processing, in problem management solutions and in project tracking and monitoring. Generally, project management software is important in helping to plan, organize, manage resources and develop resource estimates. It can manage planning and estimation, cost control, scheduling and budget management as well as maintaining quality management. Project is understood as a temporary group activity that is designed to produce unique products or services. A project is termed as temporary since it has a defined beginning and an end and therefore a defined scope. It is not a routine operation but a specific operation that is designed to accomplish a single goal. Project management is therefore the application of knowledge, skills and all necessary techniques to execute the project in an effective and an efficient manner. References Chapman, C. B., Ward, S., & Chapman, C. B. (2012). How to manage project opportunity and risk: Why uncertainty management can be a much better approach than risk management: the updated and re-titled 3rd ed of Project risk management, processes, insights and technoiques. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley. Griffin, J. A. (2010). Residential construction management: Managing according to the project lifecycle. Ft. Lauderdale, FL: J. Ross Pub. Rosenau, M. D., & Githens, G. D. (2011). Successful Project Management: A Step-by-Step Approach with Practical Examples. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Rossberg, J., & Olausson, M. (2012). Pro application lifecycle management with Visual Studio 2012. New York: Apress. Westland, J. (2007). The project management lifecycle: A complete step-by-step methodology for initiating, planning, executing and closing a project successfully. London [etc.: Kogan Page. Read More