Project Management Process - Essay Example

Project Management Process Affiliation: The Active project was a very engaging project and whose experience was fit with the process-based management. The project was based on a series of steps and followed a process that started from strategizing all the way into the last step where risk assessment evaluation was eventually carried out. Each of these processes had its own share of challenges and which added to my experience in project management and made me get to know what to avoid and what to go for in future (Heagney, 2012). During the strategizing stage, I was new at the project and had never been involved in such a huge project before and hence was nervous and was making a lot of mistakes. I could not concentrate long enough to think of any contribution to make to the group and I even forgot the basic steps of the theory which we had been taught to act as a guide. My group members however came to my rescue and did all the work at this stage. I cannot up to date be able to explain how the process of strategizing took place exactly and even had to read about it later on in order to understand and be able to move onto the next step (Kendrick, 2010). The strategizing part was not over yet as we had to continue with additional planning which mostly dealt with marketing planning and strategizing on the different ways to campaign. This involved a lot of team work to brainstorm the perfect ideas for marketing campaign which would gain the maximum support and attract the target group was hoping to attract at that time. The fact I had a little previous knowledge in marketing was a huge contribution to the group and to this stage in our project (Levine, 2002). There had to be recruitment and training which was still our responsibility and this was really stressful to find over twenty members of staff who had the right qualification, right energy and determination to work in the project and who shared the same enthusiasm and willingness to spend long hours even without pay working for the success of the project. This process took longer than was expected or even accounted for in our timeline and hence affected the whole project despite the fact that we rushed some of the steps such as budgeting (Termini, 2009). The budgeting step was my area of specialty as I am good at approximation of costs and making mini budgets for personal reasons. I therefore was confident about assisting the team in this step and since we knew what we wanted and where we would get them from in terms of materials, the budgeting stage was smooth. This taught me that having prior knowledge and experience no matter how minute it seems is of great help to any process and especially in the planning process (Chen, 2010). The fact that the budget we were doing was a general one simply for proposal purposes and not a very detailed one helped in speeding it up and ensuring that all was running smoothly and just slightly behind the schedule (Haynes, 2002). Following the planning stage was the drawing of the plans. The rough drafts of the plans for the project had already been drawn up before and hence it was a matter of refining the details and making any additions or subtractions depending on the target we had in mind. The refining was also centred on the marketing strategies we had drawn up earlier was also great assistance to the project in general (Knipe, 2002). Even so, this process of drawing up a plan and especially on the measurements based on practicality is not as simple as it sounds. A lot of arguments were received from the members of the group who did not seem to agree on what room need to be placed where and the best measurements for the room. This constant argument taught me that any process is never without its challenges but it is how people handle these challenges that matters more than anything and which will determine whether the project will be made and last or not (Roberts, 2012). Basically so what we have been involved in so far according to the project theory in discussion is the general work plan and now we had to move into specifics. These involved breaking down the requirements of the plan and do so for each specified room in the project. This was done painstakingly slow confirming and reconfirming the needed things based on research and knowledge of the group members. Forgetfulness is not acceptable by the process-based theory and hence the reason each and everything is carried out in a series of steps and give room for change and revisions (Furman, 2011). The best strategy and which we utilized in this project was dealing with one room at a time for example the kitchen and then after being through we move to the next room in the house. This gave people time to conduct research and consult widely until we came up with a comprehensive list for each and every room (Young, 2013). When all this was done and it was factored in into a mini budget which would then be added to the larger initial budget, we were able to move on the risk assessment stage. This was a tricky and demanding stage as it required not only keen attention to details but needed us to be realistic and put ourselves in the project as beneficiaries. The picturing assisted to bring things into focus and for people to bring in more contributions to the assessment stage all of which circulated around reality and not imagination purely (Kennaugh, 2008). This last stage took a lot of time and demanded a lot of effort and frequent meetings to brain storm almost similar to the case of the first stage of strategizing. The greatest challenge at this point was the lack of energy by people due to exhaustion and anticipation of the project being launched and hoping that nothing would go wrong and everything will be according to plan (Lewis, 2007). At this juncture, I was also nervous but not because of the similar reasons as the rest of the people but because this project was an indication of what I would be able to do and what I would not be able to in as far as project management was concerned. I had dedicated a lot of time and energy into the project and its success would be my reward (Milosevic, 2003). I had also learnt a lot from the process of developing this project the important one of all being team work and how necessary it was if success was to be imminent and time was to be attained as planned. Working as a team not only increased my confidence and ability to handle the project but it gave me pointers to how to manage people, handle the challenges that faces groups and team work as well as how to manage resources such as time and finances. I also came to learn that in order to any work in a project to be carried out smoothly, details were very important no matter how small or minute they appeared to be as the project work was all about details and the smaller ones the better. If the team for example in the Active project had not taken painstaking details into ensuring that each room got the important equipment and details necessary, then it would jeopardize the whole project and the professional ability of the team handing huge projects in future. The overall success of the project would indicate the strength in numbers and especially when people were dedicated to the success of something which was their passion or which they were paid handsomely to deliver perfectly (Camilleri, 2011). The fact that as a team were able to achieve all that was not only short of a miracle considering how much time we had but was truly the hard work of the team members and their selfless activities and dedication to their work (Pratt, 2010). Reference Camilleri, E. (2011). Project Success: Critical Factors and Behaviours. New York: Gower Publishers. Chen, G. (2010). Building Construction: Project Management, Construction Administration, Drawings, Specs, Detailing Tips, Schedules, Checklists and Secrets Others Donʹt Tell You ; (architectural Practice Simplified). Massachusetts: ArchiteG Inc. Furman, J. (2011). The Project Management Answer Book. New York: Management Concepts. Haynes, M. (2002). Project Management: Practical Tools for Success. Washington DC: Crisp Learning. Heagney, J. (2012). Fundamentals of Project Management. New York: AMACOM Division of American Management Association. Kendrick, T. (2010). The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right. New York: AMACOM Division of American Management Association. Kennaugh, R. (2008). Project Management: 101 Tips & Tools for Success. New Jersey: Rob Kennaugh. Knipe, A. (2002). Project Management for Success. New York: Heinneman Publishers. Levine, H. (2002). Practical Project Management: Tips, Tactics, and Tools. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Lewis, J. (2007). Fundamentals of Project Management. New York: AMACOM Division of American Management Association. Milosevic, D. (2003). Project Management ToolBox: Tools and Techniques for the Practicing Project Manager. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Pratt, D. (2010). Pragmatic Project Management: Five Scalable Steps to Success. New York: Management Concepts Inc. Roberts, P. (2012). Strategic Project Management: Creating the Conditions for Success. New York: Kogan Page Publishers. Termini, M. (2009). Strategic Project Management: Tools and Techniques for Planning, Decision Making, and Implementation. London: Society of manufacturing Engineers. Young, T. (2013). Successful Project Management. New York: Kogan Page Publishers. Read More