The Key Constraints within a Project Managment - Term Paper Example

A Study into the Key Constraints within which a Project must be managed Introduction: What do we mean by a Project? To define in a simple way, we cansay that it is a temporary attempt initiated to achieve a specific aspiration. At a fundamental level, it is a reaction to a requirement and clarification to a problem. The basic objective of any project is to earn and save money. Hence, projects should be economically acceptable. It is an exceptional undertaking. It will never be accomplished in the similar manner, by the similar individuals and within the similar surrounding. It implies that during the beginning of a project one will hardly have the privilege to get hold of the past information. One will have to complete his project with restricted information and in the worse situation with misinformation. There is always a high chance of risk associated with the project. Risk may include eternal threat to one’s capability of making accurate plans and analyze results with high level of determination. Consumption of resources in the form of time, sources, finance and effort makes a project. Here are some instances of projects- launching a new product into the market, constructing or installing a tool and leading a political campaign. On the other hand the following are not included into projects like managing a manufacturing factory, monitoring a team of workers and administering a retail business (Heerkens, 2001). Project Management is a cautiously planned and systematized attainment to achieve a specific erstwhile objective. For instance, erecting a building or implementing a new technology. It includes cultivating a project plan which incorporates ascertaining and validating the project aims and objectives, realizing tasks, how the projects will be executed, appraising the resources required, deciding budget and time span for completion. It also includes administering the operation of project plan accompanied by management of accurate and fair information. Generally, projects go through the following stages- practicability, description, project outlining, implementation, analysis and maintenance (Project Management, n.d.). Background: Project management is not new to everyone; monuments existing since the ancient civilizations imply unbelievable accomplishments of our ancestors and still stimulate wonder and adoration in our mind. Modern projects having advanced technologies are not inevitably more in proportion than those ancient titanic works. But tremendous pressure in modern world, competition among the conflicting firms, and much respect of the worth and well-being, and therefore, the cost of employment of the working groups have contributed to the emergence of new ideas and techniques of managing projects. Prior to 1900, projects of ancient times have left admiring heritage on our culture of architecture and industry. We doubt that how the people of early times had managed such amazing projects without taking help of any technology which are available at the drop of a hat today. However, we find except some of the distinguishable employers, basically the safety and security of the workers were lacking and many of them had lost their lives during the execution of the projects through accidents, diseases or merely though physical tiredness. The workers were regarded as dispensable resources that were readily available. Methodical management of organization framework existed in those days but they were limited to church, military and civil societies rather than in industrial sectors. Industrial organization came into existence at much a later phase. History says that the Chinese bridge built in the period of 1368-1644 during Ming dynasty was created by an army group. Before 1900, projects were done by the architects and the engineers. Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59) were the titans who had flourished eventually in the historical period with the application of common sense, effort and determination. The emergence of World War I had seen rapid industrialization and demand for production of armaments. These had given birth to scientists for management and engineering for industry like Elton Mayo, Fredrick Winslow Taylor who reviewed individuals and their productivity in industries. Production-lone manufacturing went popular with Model T automobile invented by Henry Ford. It proved beneficial for the project managers. Henry Gantt had discovered popular charts which are still very famous in modern times. Many crucial tings were developed prior to 1950 but they were not acknowledged at that time. Inexistence of computerized system had disabled the use of such inventions as at that time they were difficult to modify, laborious to convert into working process and absurd to apply. During 1950-1969, digital mainframe computers evoked which made processing and updating of crucial networking systems speedier and comprehensible. The defense industry of U.S. and Du Pont associations rapidly took the advantage of these technologies in 1950s. Gradually manufacturing and construction industry realized the advantages of this know-how. Computers were massive and too costly and required air-conditioned flawless rooms. The capital expenditures and the costs of operations were outside the limit of all the companies. The small companies purchased their estimating time from the departments where projects agendas were treated in batch version. These facilities were provided the giant corporations as well as by the manufacturers of computers whose computers had leisure time. From then onwards, project management became an identified job portrait, although not a dignified profession. The firms were showing respect to the workers although discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, caste, and creed prevailed in those times. The period, 1970-1979 marked the beginning of information technology (IT). Project management role got widely recognized with availability of different software. IT project managers came into being with the emergence of IT. They had no experience of planning and scheduling projects. But they had the capability of using mechanical and mental skills for promoting IT projects. These managers include top level system analysts who are very limited. High demand for these managers and a handsome pay-scale structure had often led them to change their organizations frequently. In this period project management organizations were established keeping in mind about the health and security of the workers. Thus new legislation was formed and regulations were made to prevent discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, sex and religion. Despite availability of project management software, the processing continued with the mainframe computers in batch version. Graphics were archaic which were unable to keep up with the advanced equipments. Data input was also done in a primitive manner. Hence, many errors occurred and to rectify them, again processing had to be started from the scratch. The result sheets used to come out form line printers as texts in those times. Project managers became less dependent on the IT professionals during 1980-1989.They had their own desktop PCs by which they could manage their work. Graphics were developed and small printers were available which provided colorful and complicated charts. Technology growth, however, did not correlate with the productivity as the managers were more eager to use the technology rather than management. Activity-on-arrow software became out-of-date and activity-on-node was adopted. Processing times were reduced so as to handle new projects and schedules were much rapid than before. Updating of schedules have become much fast than before to match with progress facts and projects modification. From 1990 to present day, all the suppliers of software are aware of the fact that they have to make their products congruent to Microsoft Windows. Microsoft had brought Microsoft Project in a series of programs. Some of the fallacies were eliminated from the starting versions of Microsoft and now the program has become more user-friendly particularly to the students. Project uncertainty is given much priority so that exigencies and risk alleviation strategies can be planned. One of the vital features is the competence of communication. The advent of satellites and internet have made possible for the world to shrink and transfer drawings, documents, files within fraction of a second anywhere in the world. Project management is not considered as two different divisions-industrial projects and IT projects. Today project management has become more effective and can achieve rapid and better outcomes. One might ask question that why despite so much knowledge and experience, projects fail. As for example, the New Wembley stadium project was completed late and its expense was double of the original one. However, in spite of all these faux pas, we should boast of the upcoming and prevalent modern projects like aviation, construction, hospitality, medicine, aerospace and several divisions of industry. Other than the menace of terrorism, the changes in environment and continuous depletion of non-renewable resources will prove major challenges in the coming years. Thus we require effective management to struggle with these issues for mankind to survive (Lock, 2007). Content: Organizations in modern times are heading towards the usage of teams and groups to achieve particular tasks faster and at less expense. Focus should be given to project management instead of general management procedures (Meredith and Mantel, 1995). Now coming to the key constraints of project management, they have relationships with one another in the process of life cycle of a project. The key constraints include work, resources and time. Work is the total effort which is provided during the development of a project to bring out the product. This product is not in the form of goods or commodities, but this product is what we call ‘information system’. Generally, it is a life cycle of development of systems that need to be carried out. Resources are assigned and utilized by any project. Resources mostly include organizations and finance but they can be in the form of raw materials, procurement of software, equipments, travelling costs, etc. These resources are displayed in the budget in the form of labor hours or in monetary terms. Time is defined as the lapsed time in a calendar, usually characterized by project plan. What is the correlation between time, resource and work? We should determine these relationships first in order to have an effective project management. Every organization’s target is to achieve maximum amount of work with limited resources and shortest possible time. The project managers can however, accommodate them within certain limits. To provide a bas for the planning of a project, one of the variables need to be fixed. It may be possible to fix two variables with certain restrictions given the third variable is independent. If from the very beginning all of the three variables are dependent, then there is hardly any chance for the project to be successful. To make project successful, a project manager must have control over at least one of the variables. A general way is to make a variable dependent say, work, and then try to elate the second variable say, time and after that decide over the requirement of the third variable say, resources. In most of the projects, work is ascertained and resources are scarce, hence time is dominated by the other two variables. However, we find that additional resources will not generate additional products and the relationship between work, resource and time is terminated. Beyond a certain point an additional resource will bring decrease in productivity and project time frame. The reason behind this issue is that additional involvement of a single individual in a team brings about complications within a group. Communications consumes time as well as resource. Dependence of multiple tasks in a project of system development leads to fruitless time and communication failure. An output of a work may be an input of a work which results in serious complexities. More of resources will lead to lengthening of a project. According to economic theory, law of diminishing returns will hold good. Law of diminishing returns states that if any one of the factors of production is increased, keeping the other factor constant, then the output will eventually decrease (Ward, n.d.). A Review of Literature: Constraints are a set of equipments which helps in constant improvement of the entire system. According to Heldman and Cram (2004), the constraints that are common to all individuals are time, expenses, periphery and quality. It is very crucial to understand all the constraints and keep them as simple as one can. Kerzner and Saladis (2009) have made an assessment that scope of project management are of two kinds-product scope and project scope. As viewed by Best and Valence (1999), the concept of value is the core issue in the project management. The authors have said how to address the problems in future of designing and managing as efficiently as possible. Khosrowpur (2003) narrated that people as an element should be viewed and administered with delicacy, professionalism and with legal bindings. As stated by Crawford (2001), the way to success of project management is review and approving the modifications that affect the triple constraints- time, cost and quality. Recommendations: The design files and documentation of any project should be updated from time to time. Whatever one learns or acquires knowledge, one should transfer that knowledge to other individuals so that the other person may be benefited from that information. To bring a project to an impressive and satisfying conclusion, one must appreciate those persons who have provided immense help in execution of the project. In that way, an individual will build strong foundation for future research and projects. Work of hard working people should get recognized. One needs to bring the project to an effective administrative conclusion (Heerkens, 2001). For implementation and planning, tactics and logistics are essential. Tactics mean the way how the work should be accomplished, who will be handling what and for how long each process will take. Logistics takes care of the supply of materials that are required for the job (Lewis, 2002). Conclusion: Thus coming to the conclusions part, we can say that, project management is a management where we can perform in a well fashioned manner or can perform miserably. If we can perform well, then we will be able to finish off our projects in time and it will also ensure optimal utilization of resources. This will definitely build our reputation as a successful and accomplished project manager. If one performs poorly, then his/her career is at stake. That is why managing projects in an well effective manner is extremely necessary. References: 1. Baker, S, Baker, K, Campbell, G.M. (2003). Complete idiots guide to project management. Alpha Books, New York. 2. Best, R, Valence, G.D. (1999). Building in value: pre-design issues, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. 3. Crawford, J.K. (2001). The strategic project office: a guide to improving organizational performance, CRC Press, New York. 4. Heerkens, G. (2001). Project management. McGraw-Hill Professional, New York. 5. Heldman, W, Cram, L (2004). Project+ Study Guide: Exam PK0-002, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey. 6. Kerzner, H, Saladis, F.P. (2009). Project Management Workbook and Pmp/Capm Exam Study Guide, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey. 7. Khosrowpur, M. (2003). Information technology and organizations: trends, issues, challenges and solutions, Idea Group Inc (IGI), Pennsylvania. 8. Lewis, J.P. (2002). Fundamentals of project management: developing core competencies to help outperform the competition, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, New York. 9. Lock, D. (2007). Project management. Gower Publishing, Ltd., Surrey. 10. Meredith, J.R., Mantel, S.J. (1995). Project Management: A Managerial Approach, Wiley, New Jersey. 11. Project Management. (n.d.). Free Management Library, available at: http://managementhelp.org/plan_dec/project/project.htm (Accessed on June 30, 2009). 12. Ward, J.A. (n.d.). The Key Project Constraints-Relationships and Trade-offs, available at: http://www.jamesaward.com/key%20project%20constraints.htm (Accessed on June 30, 2009). Read More