The Advanced Project Management - Essay Example

Reflection about Advance Project Management Introduction: Project management actually refers towards all the activities of planning, organizing, efficiently utilizing, controlling and then analyzing all the possible resources allocation for the accomplishment of any project. A successful project is achieved when the managers completes his assigned project within time limit and with the efficient and effective resource allocation (Hughes 2010). The course work of advance project management actually helps an individual to learn all the possible duties of a project manager. However, it is necessary that individual must check the practicality of all the models and theories. Some other authors also define project management in a different and impressive way that the use of expertise, skills and the most important intellectual capital for the execution of any task (What is Project Management 2012). Therefore, it is clear that either a project manager or a team member both require certain set of strengths and expertise. If they have any weakness then at least they should be capable to find out ways to overcome that particular weakness. Projects may fail or may achieve their goals and objectives. There might be a list of reasons behind success and failure of any project. It is important to sort out these reasons so that project managers can behave accordingly. Objectives: In this essay, the main objective is to find out the ways of implications of different models and theories, which we learn in the course work of advance project management, in our personal daily life projects as individual and as a project manager. The course work increases our self-awareness about our own strengths and weaknesses. In addition to that, it is also important to know that how we can use our skills, expertise and talents to handle all the coming hurdles and challenges. It is also necessary to know that how we can overcome our weakness and thus facing the world and their challenges. Main Body: Project management is a vast field covering many aspects, which are really needed for the success of the task or the project. The importance of personal strengths and weaknesses is vital for the success and failure of the task (Palmer 2014). Here it is to be noted that personal strength and weakness analysis is necessary for both the workers and the project manager. A project manager should be strong enough to command and control the whole team of workers and the activities. If a project manager fails to control the project and the activities then there is always a risk of resource wastage and ultimately the failure of the project. As a worker, there is a need of strong commitment and determination towards the achievement of the goal of project accomplishment. The commitment is always necessary because a committed worker will always prefer project activity and interest to his or her personal interests. Thus, this commitment is beneficial for the project manager. Different project managers have different point of view regarding project success. Some are of the opinion that a project is successful if it is completed within the time limit. Whereas many others are of the opinion that a project is successful when there is efficient and effective resource allocation and as a result, the whole project is cost effective. There can be many precautionary measures, which a project manager can adopt in order to cease or at least reduce the risk of project failure. There should be a complete demonstration about every small step, requirement and procedures of the project accomplishment. In this way, workers can assess the time management and thus work can be completed within decided dead line. The project manager should clarify all the details of the project to the workers so that they cannot say that they were not informed about the project details. This may also reduce the risk of any discrepancy or any damage to the resources. It is also important to analyze the difference between the project failure symptoms and project failure reasons. If a project manager successfully analyzes these differences then he can mitigate the failure risk just after analyzing the symptoms of the problem (Lim 2012). A perfect project manager is the one who can understand the symptoms of the project failure and then try to find out the root cause behind that particular symptom. There are certain cases where project managers analyze the symptoms, then put their maximum efforts to simplify the problem, but still the root cause remain alive to ruin the project (101 Common Cause 2012). This is the basic requirement that a project manager must be able to sort out symptoms and root causes behind the project failures. So that they cannot face the same problems in the next task or project also. There are some duties of the project manager; if he or she fulfills them then there would be less chance of any failure to happen (Faber 1999). Project manager should apply best project practices for the completion of the task. There should be a complete check and balance on the implementation of those best project practices. If the project manager is successful in the implementation of all those practices then it is a strengthening point of his career as a project manager. A project manager should use his intellectual skills and thus start treating root causes in place of symptoms (Symonds 2014). When we talk about the success factors of any project then the first thing which may come into our minds is the time and cost management. A project is surely successful if it is completed within time and with a controlled cost and resources. Now it is the duty of the project manager to design and plan all the activities within the budget of the project so that workers can work accordingly. A worker is simply responsible to follow the exact rules and regulations set by the project manager. However, on the other side a project manager is responsible for scheduling time and costs within the limit of budget and then control the implementation of these rules and regulations (Hayer & Brown 2010). When we talk about the project management then another related field or the area of interest is change management. The change management actually refers towards the desire of change in the current state of anything, which needs to be replaced. Therefore, we can say that a project manager actually aims for changing the actual or the current state of anything (Herrnstein 2012) . From individual’s perspective, the change management can be done in various sub fields e.g. behavioral, cognitive and humanistic. The project managers should work so efficiently that workers are willing for being a part of that particular change process (Pitagorsky 2011). They should feel attractive towards the opportunity to change the current situation into a desired one. The project manager and the workers should mutually out their efforts to maximize the positive impact of the change management. Workers should also maintain their interpersonal relationships with other group members so that they may able to identify any loophole or any weakness in their own work. A change can be effective if there are mutual efforts for the target achievement and the task accomplishment. Conclusion: In short words, we can say the success and failure of the project is dependent on both sides i.e. workers and the project managers. The managers should assess all the challenges and the hurdles and then adopt preventive measures. The workers have the responsibility to cooperate with the project managers and fully utilize their skills, talents, expertise and capabilities for the accomplishment of the project. A project manager should be responsible for the implementation of best project practices for the accomplishment of the task. A project management and change management are somehow related to each other. When we are doing any task or project then it means we are going to change anything’s current state. So the project management can be related to the change management. The success factors of a project management may include an efficient and effective plan of time and cost management for the project accomplishment. Reference List: “101 Common Cause”, 2012, Why Projects Fail? Viewed 24 April 2014 http://calleam.com/WTPF/?page_id=2338 “What is Project Management”, 2012, Project Management Institute, viewed 23 April 2014 http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/About-Us-What-is-Project-Management.aspx Faber, S 1999, “The Factors Affecting A Project’s Success”, Project Management, viewed 24 April 2014 http://www.ehow.com/list_6883050_factors-affecting-project_s-success.html Hayer, N & Brown, K 2010, “Top Ten Project Success Factors”, Managing Projects; A Team Based Approach, viewed 24 April 2014 http://teambasedapproach.com/02/top-ten-project-success-factors/ Hornstein, H 2012, “The Need to Integrate Project Management and Organizational Change”, The Organization, viewed 24 April 2014 http://iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/the-organization/the-need-to-integrate-project-management-and-organizational-change#.U1gTYVWSzps Hughes, S 2010, “Five Critical Success Factors for Project Managers”, Industrial Extension Service, viewed 24 April 2014 http://www.ies.ncsu.edu/news-center/blog/five-critical-success-factors-for-project-managers Lim, R 2012, “Top Ten Main Causes of Project Failure”, Project Mangement.com, viewed 24 April 2014 http://project-management.com/top-10-main-causes-of-project-failure/ Palmer, E 2014, “Five Factors that Lead to a Successful Project”, Project Management.com, viewed 24 April 2014 http://project-management.com/five-factors-that-lead-to-successful-projects/ Pitagorsky, G 2011, “Project Managers are Change Managers”, Project Times, viewed 24 April 2014 http://www.projecttimes.com/george-pitagorsky/project-managers-are-change-managers.html Symonds, M 2014, “How To Avoid Project Failure?” Project Training Blog, viewed 24 April 2014 http://blog.parallelprojecttraining.com/project-management-articles/avoid-project-failure/ Read More