Critical Evaluation of the Constraints Faced by Project Managers - Case Study Example

Project Management Critical Evaluation of the Constraints Faced By Project Managers and How These Impact Project Scheduling and Planning The aim of any business is to generate money through developing throughput while minimizing operational expenses, and reducing inventory levels. The approach to implementation of TOC (Theory of Constraints) thinking in the organization or the company necessitates that the company’s constrained process (capacity challenge) be recognized and hopefully reduced. Then, if the challenge continues, the rest of the activities in the company must be lowered to the constraint. The attention of the whole company is focussed on a particular problem that is of great concern to the consumer (the challenge). The rest of the activities in the company are synchronized with the challenge process, which makes sure that the challenge process is not piled up or it is starved because the needed inputs are not available. The bottleneck must be eliminated in any way possible and this increases the capability of the entire company (Jawa 2004, p1). For many years, project managers have been told to focus on constraints. In projects, a constraint is thought to be an important path, which is a series of activities that determine the least time required for the project to finish. Vanhoucke (2012, p192) further notes that the project management generally overlooks the scarce resources required by activities which are either on or off the critical path and probably by other projects (Vanhoucke 2012, p192). Goodpasture (2004, p211) also asserts that project constraint is a critical path. In other words, the project is constrained to a particular duration, and the constrained time cannot be shortened. The impact of the critical path is that the constrained throughput cannot be increased, and thus, the throughput is threatened if the critical path is not managed in a proper way (Goodpasture 2004, p211). It is worth noting that all projects have constraints. Not very long ago, the three main constraints (also known as the triple constraints) were the project management creed spoken by experienced project managers. The three main constraints that project managers face include scope, cost, and schedule. However, these are not the only constraints faced by project managers; other constraints include consumer satisfaction, budget, and quality. All the mentioned constraints have significant impact on the outcomes of the project, and that is why they get considerable attention (Heldman 2011, p23). Scope All projects are set out to generate a unique result or product. Scope describes what the result or the product should be like. It considers the objectives and the goals of the project and defines what the project is attempting to achieve. The goals are then broken down into smaller elements until the work can be easily described. Scope can frequently change or grow during the course of the project. Thus, it is very crucial to document scope. Scope generally entails interchanges with the other constraints, and transformations in scope will affect budget, time, or both. Changes in the time or budget can also affect scope. For instance, if one is constructing a new house on a restricted or limited budget. The individual wants granite countertops in the bathroom, but he does not have sufficient money in the budget. Then, the scope has to be modified and a different material chosen for the countertops to avoid the necessity of going over the budget again (Heldman 2011, p23). Schedule Majority of the projects function under some form of deadline. If the project involves constructing a new shopping center that must be completed in time for the holiday shopping period, then the project is time-constrained. Schedules are developed on units of time thus; the word time is sometimes used in place of the word schedule when describing the triple constraints (Heldman 2011, p23). The time deadline governs the manner in which the project activities are completed and scheduled. The projector requestor or the stakeholders have indicated that the new shopping center must be opened by October. The project manager works very hard on the project schedule, and comes up with a plan that permits all the activities to be completed by the deadline. It is important to note that there are time constraints, which generally entail scheduling activities and can lead to some interesting issues for the project manager. If the schedule entails paving crews at a particular point within the plan but there are no paving crews accessible at the appointed time, the project manager will have dilemma (Heldman 2011, p24). Budget Budget is very crucial in all projects. Despite the size (large or small) of the project, a budget must always be there. One may have a small amount or a big amount of money, but either way the project manager is constrained by the overall amount available for achieving the goals of the project. Using solid project management methods will assist the project manager in accomplishing all the objectives or aims of the project in the allotted budget (Heldman 2011, p24). Quality Quality is also considered one of the triple constraints by certain project management experts. It is worth noting that quality can be constraint, however, it is mostly affected by one of the triple constraints. It makes sure that the end product follows the requirements and the description of product as described in the Planning process. Performing quality control and taking quality measurements makes sure that the quality measurements are met. They also make sure that the project conforms to the initial or original requirements (Heldman 2011, p24). Customer Satisfaction Consumers are the main reason why companies or organizations are in business. Success is achieved when the consumers are satisfied with the company’s services or products. On project management, the same scenario applies. Time, budget, and scope may go as planned, however, if the consumers are not satisfied, they will not come back (Heldman 2011, p24; Dobson 2004, p9). There are two reasons why customers can be dissatisfied and they include relationship building and communication problems (Heldman 2011, p24). For instance, if the manager separates himself from the consumer because of poor people skills or poor communication skills, the consumer will be dissatisfied with the project. The consumer can love the product but not like the manner in which the project process was done. Thus, it is evident that issues of consumer dissatisfaction can be linked to variations in interpersonal skills and communication problems (Heldman 2011, p25). How Constraints Impact Project Scheduling and Planning Constraints in a project limit the project team in a way and this is usually known at the beginning or initiation of the project. On the other hand, risks are not generally known at the start of the project. A closer look at the risks can assist the project manager recognize project risks. The triple constraints that have the biggest risk effect on the project are scope, cost, and schedule. Quality and resource constraints also pose great risks to the project. Each primary constraint has its own risks (Heldman 2011, p146). If schedule (or time) is the primary constraint, risks linked with the constraint could entail lack of training chances in time for crucial project activities, equipment failure, weather (or other forces of nature), loss of key personnel, and vendor delays. Each of the mentioned potential risks has an effect on the project schedule (Heldman 2011, p147). Risks that affect the project schedule can have potential impact on the project budget. If an equipment failure occurs or the vendor delays, for instance, it may necessitate additional budget to purchase new equipment and advance the shipment or replace the existing vendor (or hire another vendor). These risks can also affect the project scope. For instance, if the equipment required is highly specialised but causes constant problems, modification of the project scope may be necessary in order to accommodate a different version or type of the equipment initially needed for the project. A risk that entails one of the triple constraints will most likely involve one or both of the other constraints. For instance, the loss of an important employee during the project is both a project time (or schedule) risk and a potential cost risk. Once the employee leaves and the project manager has not designed a plan to deal with the risk, the project schedule will be affect and it may cost the project manager a considerable amount of money and skills required to complete the job, and thus affect the project budget (Heldman 2011, p147). A Case Study The School Refurbishment Programme case study shows why an increase in cost and timeframe does not necessary indicate a project blowout. As indicated in the newspapers, the government’s new initiative to enhance facilities at state schools was already in trouble only six months after the beginning of the two-year refurbishment project. Early surveys disclosed that majority of the buildings scheduled for refurbishment in a specific area had asbestos roofing which were to be removed by specialist contractors. It was understood that it would delay the project by a period of 4 months (Smyrk and Zwikael 49). If the project were indeed delayed, this would suggest that the whole exercise did not succeed in its time criterion. However, the project did not necessarily delay. This is because if the project risk register had identified the presence of asbestos and had anticipated a four-month delay in its removal (together with the associated cost increase), then the cost constraints and the project timeframe have not been interfered with. This is because it has been approved in the business case as a probable scenario and funded accordingly. On the other hand, if such a situation was not identified, then the budget and timeframe have been violated. However, this does not imply that the project management has failed, unless it can be proved that such a risk should have been recognized (Smyrk and Zwikael 49). Conclusion Proper and effective project management can only be achieved if the constraints are taken care of in the best way possible. The main project constraints are scope, time, and cost; however, there are other constraints such as consumer satisfaction, budget, and quality. An important feature in all these constraints is that one constraint risk can affect the outcome of another constraint risk. For instance, a risk in project planning can affect project scheduling. Therefore, forcing the project manager to develop another plan for the project or reschedule it. Customer satisfaction is important in business as well as in projects. Thus, a project may go as planned but the customer may become dissatisfied by the project process. References Dobson, M. S. (2004) The triple constraints in project management, Vienna, VA: Management Concepts. Goodpasture, J. C. (2004) Quantitative methods in project management, Boca Raton: J. Ross Publishing. Heldman, K. (2011) Project management jumpstart, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Jawa, M. (2004) Project management: In a theory of constraints environment, Ontario: Sati Star Management Consulting. Smyrk, J., & Zwikael, O. (2011) Project Management for the Creation of Organizational Value, London, UK: Springer. Vanhoucke, M. (2012) Project management with dynamic scheduling: Baseline scheduling, risk analysis and project control, London, UK: Springer. Read More