Managing Projects for Value - Assignment Example

Project Management - Case Study (Grabbit & Scarper) Task Q1. For the success of any project it is very important that the project must carry all the significant principle and characteristics. Since the nature of each project is different from other, the core principles that must be taken into consideration are as follow (Boddy, 2001): Determining the objective of the paper The ways through which the objectives can be achieved The availability of the resources in terms of time, money and other resources to reach the objectives. The awareness about the obstructions and hindrance that can be encounter in the project. Continuous evaluation of the progress of the project. With these principles in mind the characteristics of a project includes (Kerzner, 2013): i. A positive and healthy relationship among the project members. ii. Strong management of the project iii. Proper listing of the project needs iv. Persistent focus on the process v. Effective communication and control vi. Strong and technical leadership of the project. Importance: The above mentioned principles and characteristics of a project are very significant because they underpin the strong foundation of a project upon which its success lies. It helps in planning, organizing and meeting the objectives of the project along with its accomplishment in a given period of time (Meredith & Mantel, 2011). Q2. I would define the scope of this project by aligning all the products of the project, their features and requirements that is the totality to the entire project work. This involves a proper structure and framework of the breakdown of the products or task involves in the projects along with the description of each task and steps involved in it (Fleming & Koppelman, 2000). In order to determine the scope of this project, I would first consider the objectives of the project, the goals of the project, the phases and sub phase involved in it, the tasks, resources, time, budget and scheduling of the project. Q3. The critical path of a project helps in planning, organizing and managing the entire project. It steps down each important step involved in the project. This listing helps in determining what need to be done before and what is required to be done later. The cost, time and resources required to perform these activities are attached in the critical path. If Penny Black would formulated the critical path she would have got a clear picture reflecting the entire journey of the project along with critical points. She would be able to get the idea which task needed to be done before and comes after the initial task. For instance if she would work on the size of the pumps and compressors earlier she would not end up with the wrong orders (Schwalbe, 2013). With the help of Gantt chart, Penny would be able to allocate the project activities in accordance with the time. The Gantt chart also helps her in keeping the track of project’s progress along with the running of costs. Gantt chart are flexible management tool, hence for any changes that occurred during the project she would be able to maintain a proper flow of the tasks and the progress. This tool is very beneficial for the planning process and once utilize properly it reduces the chance of errors (Pich et al., 2002). Q4. There are several methods for the cost management of the project. According to the Rad (2002) the project cost management involves four processes, these are a. Cost management planning b. Costs estimation c. Determination of the budget d. Cost controlling With that there are some specific techniques that will incorporate with these processes. Among them I would like to choose “Resource Based Costing”. That will help in listing the resources utilized in the project followed with the total cost incurred. I would also like to use the “Empirical Methods”; the empirical methods are done on the software. The reason for choosing the empirical methods is that it takes very less time and it gives accurate results (Huchzermeier & Loch, 2001). Q5. For this project, I would like to do the Risk Analysis, by acquiring the data and assessing the information critical to the project and that may have the potential to harm the project. A certain amount of risk in the form of human error is always present (Highsmith, 2009). Hence being aware of that and taking preventive measure beforehand reduce the negative impact of the risks. I would do the risk management by studying that would the expansion project be completed in the duration of 6 to 8 month or it will go beyond. I would examine the maximum cost of the project and then budget the project according to the needs. Q6. Several quality methods were missing from the project including TQM (Total Quality Management), Six Sigma, WBS and PERT. The TQM and Six Sigma helps in improving the quality of the project whereas the PERT and WBS facilitates the project manager to allocate the scheduled work keep a track on the cost and resources followed with tracking the progress (Kerzner, 2002). I would like to impose WBS (work breakdown structure) and PERT (program evaluation and review techniques). Task 2: Introduction: In the corporate world and especially in the big companies, one often come across by several kinds of project. Some of these are short term and some of them are long term. The Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company required to upgrade its system for future orders. For this up gradation project they have hired a project manager, Penny Black. Despite of being a capable person, she failed to pull the project towards it success. There were many reasons attached to that, which if considered earlier would cause the loss to the company. These issues fall in the domain of project management and have occurred due to the mishandling of the entire project. Mistakes made by the company: The presented case is based on the family business run by the generations of the Grabbit family. The name of the company is Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited since they have done partnership with the manufacturing firm of Alan Scarper, they now have in a business of manufacturing pharmaceutical products. Both the families are vigorously involved in the business and the upper management of the company has been managed by the family members of Grabbit and overseas management by the two sons of Alan Scarper. Since it was a family business there were few members that were not performing their job responsibilities and their expected duties in a professional manner. They did not take it seriously and were involved in the non-office activities. Being at the key position it should not be happen with any personnel of the company. There wasn’t any proper management of the system and operations going in the company. Despite of the fact that the management of the company has hired an inexperienced project manager, they should provide her with a thorough orientation of the company and the people whom she will be expected to meet, work and coordinate. Further, a previously done feasibility report and the exact specifications of the compressors and pumps should be provided to the newly appointed project manager by the management. There were no check and balance that whether the project is going in the right direction or not. There have totally missed out the proper prior documentation and planning of the project that are expected to do with in their company and they also did not prepare the paper work for their newly hired project manager and a site pass card for her. Mistakes made by Penny Black: Along with the management of the company, Penny Black, the newly appointed project manager also made several mistakes. At an initial she has missed to contact the company before joining. She should make sure her presence at the company prior to her first day. She was not fully aware of the size of the company and intensity of the work that she had admitted to perform and since she was not aware she was not well prepared. Penny spent a lot of time in gathering the company information relevant to the project. In this way she has missed the several staff meetings that were very important in order to be familiar a get along with the people she is about to work. She had not done a handful amount of study and sent out the tenders to the pump manufacturer and installers. Further, Penny Black failed to properly plan her work which resulted in a failure. She has missed to add a wind age clause in the contract of the cranes. With that she had also ordered the wrong pumps and compressors. Report: The above mentioned mistakes by the company and by Penny Black have caused severe loss to the Grabbit and Scarper & sons limited in terms of money and the time. This would not occur if the management and the project manager would have applied the practices of project management. The Project management is the application of skills, knowledge and techniques in order to carry out the desired project in an effective and efficient manner. It gives the competency to the organization in a strategic way and helps the management to link the results of the project with the overall goals of the business. Further, the issues rose at the Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited and the newly hired Project Manager would channelize the entire project based on the standardized process of project management. This will involve five basic steps (Crawford & Pollack, 2007): Initiating Planning Executing Monitoring and Controlling Closing Before starting any project, the management of the company must need to understand and address the terms and conditions for the project (Larson, 2004). Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited have missed that preparation and handed over the project to the inexperienced project manager. With that, the project manager herself did not prepare. Below are the major steps missed and needed by the management of the company and the project manager to properly execute the project. Defining the Project: At this stage of the project, clear and exact objectives of the company must be stated. These will highlight the purpose of the project, what it is expected to achieve and the ways that will lead to accomplishments of the objectives (Royer, 2001). It will also highlight the expected risk that could be incurred during the course of the project. If the management of the company and the project would take this very initial step they would be able to understand the comprehensive reason of the project (Rad & Anantatmula, 2005). This will facilitate them in setting up the targets for the project. The proper documentation in this initial phase of the project will help in setting the valuable standards and certain performance criteria for the project. This defining moment of a project also incorporate the key measure for the objectives (Hass, 2007). At Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited the documentation will address the proper expansion of the plants. Task and resources: After missing the setting of project objectives, the next thing that was totally missed is the proper formulation of task and resource structure. The tasks of the project are the activities related to the project work that are supposed to be completed in a definite period of time. The tasks are the small chunk of work assigned to the members of the project according to their capabilities. Penny has failed to do that, she has missed several staff meeting due to the other necessary work; resultantly there was not any proper allocation of the task executed in the project. The size of the task is totally depending on the nature of work involved in the project and the requirement of the time (Goodpasture, 2001). What could be done at Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited was making small groups and teams and among them major work will be divided. At the company there were no structure that would deal with the resources required in the project in terms of quantity and quality. Resultantly, tenders had been passed for the wrong orders that were not in accordance with the requirement of the business. Further, the people that were needed for the cooperation and coordination in the project were out of station. Hence in need of any documentation, Penny (the project manager) had to wait for several weeks. This resulted in the wastage of time. The proper resource planning would help in defining the personnel required for the project as per their qualifications. It also involves the machinery and the equipment needed for the project along with the size and capacity. The resource planning also deals with the services required by the project in terms of labor services, technical and legal services (Cioffi, 2006). Scheduling: Neither the management of Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited nor the project manager, Penny Black has worked on formulating a proper schedule for the expansion project. A schedule would give them a proper timeline of the activities and the events that are expected to incur in the entire duration of the project (Mochida, 2013). This will help Penny to organize her work in 6 to 8 months. Further a project schedule also carries a start and finish time of the project activities. Any delay in that will alarm the major initiative need to be taken for that. Further, schedules would be great guidance for Penny as it highlights the dependencies of the tasks over each other and their standard duration. This has been right in the beginning of the operations when her work on the documents was delayed due to the incorrect set up of her computer. This error has become one of the root causes for the entire failure of the project. In the case it has been seen that the cranes were at the plant before time and there were no prior arrangement and conduction of the inventory. In this situation proper scheduling would eliminate the loss that has been incurred by the company in terms of money, time and energy. Assessment and Management of the Risk: Penny along with the management of company were failed to assess and analyze the risk involved in the project. And since they did not analyze the risk factor they failed to manage the risks occurred in sometime. What could be done is the proper assessment of the risk. This assessment would be done in three different categories, which involve schedule risk, cost risk and performance risk. In doing that Gantt chart would be great tool, it will help in assessing the progress of the project over the period of time along with the cost involved in it. The schedule risk can be reduced by using the PERT which is the Program Evaluation Review Technique (Müller, Martinsuo, & Blomquist, 2008). If it was adopted in the upgrading project at Grabbit and Scarper & Sons Limited by the project manager, Penny, it would have helped her analyze the duration of each project tasks and the time it require to finish the complete project. Another technique that was missed by Penny is the adaption of the CPM (Critical Path Method). This is very good technique that reflects the representation of the network of the all the project activities. Not just that, it would provide Penny with the resources, cost and time required for each activity. By encompassing that, it would be easier for the project manager of Grabbit and Scarper & Sons Limited to determine the final length of the project. Further, the cost risks involved in the up gradation of the Grabbit and Scarper & Sons Limited’s plants could be evaluated by practicing the technique of WBS. WBS is defined as the Work Breakdown Structure that arranges the tasks of the project into different hierarchical phases and stages. When this would have been done it tell the concern authority about any additional cost occurring in the project at any point in time. Project Scope: Another great aspect at which the management of the company and the project manager Penny were failed to work upon is setting up and defining the scope of the project. This step is done right at the beginning of the project before practically involved in the activities. It incorporates the sum of all the activities of the project along with their features and the requirements. The scope of the project define by the project manager reflects the totality of the work that the project will incorporate. It also shows the dimensions of work that are expected to be covered in the project (Turner, 2006; Kloppenborg & Petrick, 2002). The issues that are faced by the Penny in the up gradation project at Grabbit and Scarper & Sons Limited were easily eliminated if the scope of the project would have been established by her, in doing that she will be able to outline the summary of the complete project. Developing teams: It has been stated earlier in the report, that indeed there was the dire need of teams at Grabbit and Scarper & Sons Limited’s project. The development of teams would facilitate Penny in dividing the project activities among different teams and each team would be performing their assigned tasks followed with the results that would help the project manager to accomplish the project objectives in a cumulative manner. In addition to that, team work would generate synergies at the workplace. It facilitates the communication among the team member which enhances the level of coordination and cooperation. This factor was totally missing at Grabbit and Scarper & Sons Limited and Penny had faced lot of problems. Leadership and management: The element of leadership was totally missing at the project. And not just at the project, it was missing at the company as well. All the family members were at the key positions of the company and some of them did not take their job seriously. With the leadership comes management and hence this element was also lacking at company. When it comes to the project of Grabbit and Scarper & Sons Limited, Penny did not turn out to be good leader. She was not able to manage the work properly and also failed to lead the project. Recommendations: For such a massive project, the management of the company must hired an experienced person Necessary work should be done by the company and by the project manager prior to start any project. It is important to define the project scope and set the clear and accurate objectives of the company. Proper evaluation of the project must be done. This can be accomplished with the help of Critical Path and Gantt chart. The risk associated with the project should be properly evaluated before starting the project and they should be taken into consideration during the project as well. List of References Boddy, D. (2001). Managing projects: building and leading the team. Pearson Education. Cioffi, D. F. (2006). Designing project management: A scientific notation and an improved formalism for earned value calculations. International Journal of Project Management, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 136-144. Crawford, L., & Pollack, J. (2007). How generic are project management knowledge and practice?. Project Management Journal, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 87-97. Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2000). Earned value project management. Project Management Institute. Goodpasture, J. C. (2001). Managing projects for value. Management Concepts Press. Hass, K. B. (2007). The blending of traditional and agile project management.PM world today, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 1-8. Highsmith, J. (2009). Agile project management: creating innovative products. Pearson Education. Huchzermeier, A., & Loch, C. H. (2001). Project Management Under Risk: Using the Real Options Approach to Evaluate Flexibility in R… D. Management Science, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 85-101. Kerzner, H. R. (2002). Strategic planning for project management using a project management maturity model. John Wiley & Sons. Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons. Kloppenborg, T. J., & Petrick, J. A. (2002). Managing project quality. Management Concepts Inc. Larson, E. (2004). Project management structures (pp. 48-66). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011). Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons. Mochida, S. (2013). Knowledge Retrieval for Project Management. InConcurrent Engineering Approaches for Sustainable Product Development in a Multi-Disciplinary Environment (pp. 255-266). Springer London. Müller, R., Martinsuo, M., & Blomquist, T. (2008). Project portfolio control and portfolio management performance in different contexts. Project Management Journal, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 28-42. Pich, M. T., Loch, C. H., & Meyer, A. D. (2002). On uncertainty, ambiguity, and complexity in project management. Management science, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 1008-1023. Rad, P. F. (2002). Project estimating and cost management. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Rad, P. F., & Anantatmula, V. S. (2005). Project planning techniques. Management Concepts Inc. Royer, P. S. (2001). Project risk management: a proactive approach. Management Concepts Inc. Schwalbe, K. (2013). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning. Turner, J. R. (2006). Towards a theory of project management: The nature of the functions of project management. International Journal of Project Management, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 277-279. Read More