The Principal Aim of the Project Manager - Speech or Presentation Example

DEBATE Speaking against the motion; ‘The Principal Aim of the Project Manager is to produce a Good Quality Product for the Client’ INTRODUCTION We would probably agree with our opponents that ‘the PM’s principal aim is to produce a good quality product for the client’ had this debate taken place a couple of decades ago, but this is 2010, and PM today is not quite what it used to be. The role of project manager has become so vastly diversified, so interactive with organizational politics and human resources, that it has become more than simply producing a quality product. It has evolved into a primary goal of leadership to ensure that those in subordinate roles are engaged in meeting deadlines and project expectations. The principal aim of the project manager, in today’s project teams, is most definitely leadership based while others in the group have the focus of carrying out project tasks effectively, efficiently, and to client expectations. Lock (2007, 9th ed. Pp 6) classified projects into four types TYPE 1 Projects: civil engineering, construction, petrochemical, mining and quarrying TYPE 2 Projects: manufacturing TYPE 3 Projects: IT projects and projects associated with management change TYPE 4 Projects: projects for pure scientific research Today, thanks to factors such as the emergence of IT, project failures, and the general realization by organizations of the need to employ specialist personnel to oversee project delivery, PM is used in all spheres of human endeavour. The meanings of project management, the role of the project manager, and the areas of practice have changed significantly. Gone are the days when PM was widely perceived only to be management of physical/tangible projects in areas such as construction, engineering, oil rigging among others. Today project management techniques, tools and methodologies are employed in all forms of organizations (business, government or not-for-profit). For this reason, we believe any attempt to base the PM’s principal aim in a particular area of practice, or even rank his aims in relation to project delivery, is way too SIMPLISTIC. This individual’s primary goals are to ensure motivation in the project team, using advanced human resources tactics, so that task-oriented individuals within the group remain focused on achieving a positive end result that is on-budget, on time, and meeting within the project specifications outlined in the project management blueprint. It would be absolutely unrealistic to say that the primary role is to satisfy the client and deliver the end project, it is maintaining a strong focus on leadership first and foremost. In order to reiterate, allow us to describe the nature of project management by offering definitions of key terms associated with project leadership. In order to understand the newly diverse role of the PM, it is necessary to understand all of the elements associated with special projects. DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS 1. Project 2. Project Manager 3. ‘Principal Aim’ ‘project’ The APM (the professional body for the field of Project management in the UK), defines the term ‘Project’ as a ‘unique, transient endeavour undertaken to achieve a desired outcome’ (APM BOK, 5th ed.). We observe from this definition that activities that can be classified as ‘projects’ are many and varied. In fact one writer even identifies ‘getting married’ (not staying married) as a project. The term project, then, is a specialized function that has a broad definition, determined by the business in which the PM operates and the fundamental project outcomes demanded by the organization and its executive leadership. Diversity is the key word when it comes to project management and it takes on significantly different meanings. To elaborate, projects have the following characteristics, some of which distinguish them from other business activities. These include: Uniqueness Definite start and finish Have set benefits to deliver Involves some amount of risk and uncertainty Cost The project manager is the person responsible for ensuring the project is planned and gets delivered on time, on budget, and to specification, as previously identified. Among his many duties and responsibilities are; 1. To plan, delegate, monitor and control the entire project process – This is a typical management function involving having an understanding of how to coordinate resources effectively to achieve maximum results. 2. To motivate the project people to achieve efficiency – Motivational elements include, but are not limited to, establishing a reward system for meeting project milestones or facilitating a team environment based on trust and respect. 3. To ensure everything goes according to plan, time and budget – This requires having the ability to create measurement tools that look at aspects such as individual employee coaching or making personnel changes in the event that there is a member on the team that is achieving poor performance results. 4. To effectively manage the project cost, risk and resources – Risk leadership is assessing the internal and external project environment and identifying contingencies to avoid disruption to meeting project goals. Cost measurement, as well, involves proper coordination of resources and ensuring that there is no miscommunication regarding individual or group role expectations during the course of the entire project. ‘principal aim’ The PM’s aims are what he sets out to achieve at any stage of the project lifecycle. These include delivering the final product he is tasked to deliver, reaching a milestone in the project life, meeting deadlines, getting cost estimates right etc. We can say therefore that the PM’s aims are as many as his total bag of responsibilities. Also, the PM’s aims are related to his/her duties and responsibilities because he can only achieve his aims by performing his oversight function effectively using a project leadership model. Again, one can talk of a ‘principal aim’ ONLY in the context of a host of other aims. Principal aim therefore means the ‘chief aim’, or the ‘main aim’ out of many other aims and objectives. It is questionable, therefore, to suggest that the PM has a principal aim in the first place due to the diverse load of human resources and generic management responsibilities taking place throughout the entire project life cycle. We believe all his aims are principal in their own right. Even if we decide to buy into this notion of ‘aim ranking’ (which we wouldn’t do but for the sake of this debate), the following are the reasons why the principal aim of the project manager is NOT to ‘produce a good quality product for the client’. The PM’s principal aim (if there is one), can be any among his many duties and responsibilities depending on a number of factors including (but not limited to): 1. Time 2. Cost 3. The type of project 4. sponsor requirements 5. General requirements of the project delivery 6. The context in which the project gets delivered 7. The role of leading others and performing needs analysis to maximise delegation Time: Assume you were a project manager tasked with the construction of a good quality stadium for the 2012 Olympic Games, (this is a time and quality demand project). Assuming also for reasons beyond your control, you are to choose between delivering a stadium that does not meet quality specifications, but is good enough to host the games in 2012 AND delivering a good quality stadium in 2013, when the stadium will no longer be needed. Which will you choose? Which of the two should be your principal aim? This is a rather straight-forward question with a straight-forward answer: It is the former. Negating the delivery of a ‘good enough’ stadium in favour of a quality-assured stadium after it will be needed will not satisfy anyone in the project and be a complete waste of time and resources. The goal is to ensure that there is a mechanism for delivering the 2012 games even if quality has to be sacrificed due to uncontrollable externalities. Cost: We all know the new Wembley stadium got delivered despite its actual cost rising to as high as three times than was originally estimated. Why? It is because of its source of funding. However, there are instances where projects have stalled or even been cancelled halfway through their implementation because of cost overruns. Some of these are controllable while others occur as a product of inferior project leadership or resource allocation. There are also projects with fixed budgets. Most charity projects are typical examples. In such situations the consequence of the project running into cost problems is always that the project never gets completed. We believe the theoretical principal aim of any PM responsible is for estimating and managing the cost of such projects. It should be the project COST and not its QUALITY, at least in terms of projects that have a fixed budget guideline. Type of project: The principal aim of the PM can also be determined by the type of project at hand. Most projects in Dennis Lock’s type 3 ‘management projects’ (Lock, 2007) are likely to require the PM’s main aim to be anything but quality. A typical example is emergency humanitarian response projects by charity organizations. We believe a PM tasked with the project of getting food, water and medical supplies to thousands of people stranded or trapped in a dire humanitarian circumstance like the recent Haiti earthquake, should have the principal aim of getting these supplies across immediately and not to waste time ensuring these supplies are of the highest quality. Therefore, in this type of project, it is response time and having the skills necessary to understand when rapid response is needed and when. Sponsor We believe the PM’s principal aim could also be determined by customer/sponsor requirements sets out in the contract. If the sponsor states his priority as meeting time and budget targets above the quality of the product, the principal aim of the PM must be exactly that. In this case, it is strict compliance to client demands related to the project and quality is much more a non-issue as a primary goal. Though there are many other duties associated with project management, what was just discussed efficiently describes the basic responsibilities of PM leadership. None of these deal directly with quality as the primary PM goal, but understanding basic coordination efforts and how to satisfy a client through the process of managing the special objective. Again, it is not delivery of a final quality project, it is management-based and leadership-based with a stern knowledge of how to meet project expectations and deadlines using given resources. CONCLUSION We believe the modern Project Manager’s role involves a host of management and operational duties, as well as responsibilities, most of which are so equally important that they simply cannot be traded off. Notable among these are the issues of cost, time, quality, client interest, and the motivation of project personnel. The PM’s principal aim should be the effective management, as well as the successful achievement of all these, his prime aim, and when he does; GOOD QUALITY PRODUCTS will deliver themselves. It can definitely be said, without any shadow of a doubt, that the primary role of the project manager is not delivery of quality, but being able to perform a balancing act of multiple roles in order to ensure that a final project meets with expectations. It is the interim steps before delivering the project to the client that are his or her primary goal and not delivery of a quality project. Thank you. Read More