Definition, Significance, and Benefits of Project Management - Report Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Introduction If the world was perfect, all the projects should have been within schedule and budget; however, realty is somewhat different. Nearly 70% of the project that are undertaken actually fail due to varying reasons ranging from poor project planning, not undertaking risk management to bad stakeholder management resulting in loss of exhorbently high cost. Even if the constraints for schedule and budget are met, the question of project delivering what it intended in terms of results and quality to meet customer satisfaction is critical for measuring the project success. Experience has shown that most of project failed due to unclearly or ambiguous project objectives, conflicts among team members and/or stakeholders, lack of commitment, unrealistic schedule, unclearly forecasted budgetary requirements and conflicting priorities. This are all signs of the poor or no project management. However, it seems unfair that all the burden of failure falls on a single person Project Manager but it is how and why the project are managed to address the real life issues to bring betterment to humanity. Project can fail, even with the best intentions, if not planned and managed properly. Besides, unprecedented situations can occur if the project manager and his team have not carried out a thorough risk management planning. These reasons signify the importance of the project management and consequences of initiating a project without such efforts. Definition, Significance and Benefits of Project Management Project Management Institute (2008) in its PMBOK defines a project as “a temporary endeavor with a beginning and a definite end that creates a unique product, service or results and is progressively elaborated”. Lawson and Gray (2011) highlight major characteristics of a project as:- Defined and clear objective Definite and recognized starting and end Involvement of other departments, professionals and experts Unique as never done before Has requirements of time, cost, scope and performance Project management is an effort to produce the desired results or deliverables in a number of varied ways of execution all reaching towards the end objectives. Project management includes clearly defining objectives, establishing requirements, managing conflicting resource priorities, balancing the requirements of challenging stakeholders and team members while endeavoring to achieve cohesion towards common purpose. Managing projects in a systematic way result in cost effectiveness, mitigation and elimination of risks involved, higher productivity towards accomplishing the desired end objectives. These benefits necessitate a well-structured and scientific approach towards managing the project without which organization would find is difficult to meet the multifaceted challenges presented by the modern era of globalization. Without such an approach, it would be impossible for organizations to manage and deliver the project within defined and agreed upon constraints of time, cost, quality and scope in current competitive business environment. In more simple words, there is a requirement of established framework that is well recognized and agreed upon. In this context, organizations can benefit from the sequenced activities and task dependencies identified in the PMBOK and other related journals to create a structured approach to project management by achieving control over project environment, ensuring the end project deliverables while managing the triple constraints. Triple constraints are the competing and challenging requirement of time, scope and cost demanding a high priority on project manager’s to do list. The absence of such a structured approach would lead organizations in a volatile and disordered situation where they would have little or no control. Project management is a vast topic and is difficult to concisely provide all the definitions, terms and terminologies within few pages. It is critical to understanding that project management provides organizations with a structured framework of specified actions and activities, adopting to which can ensure project success. In the next few paragraphs, an effort has been made to demonstrate understanding of new learning in the field of project management by reviewing few fundamental topics. Project Life Cycle The context in which project management and project take place in actual is greater than that of projects. Developing the understanding of this context at the earlier stages of the project enables the project work to be aligned with the organizational objectives and the methodologies and practices well established at the organizational level. According to PMI (2008) in its PMBOK, a collection of project phases that is determined in number, name and sequence by the organizational needs of control and management over the project execution, project nature and application area of the project. Project lifecycle is a documented methodology that can be modified to suite the inherent characteristics if the industry or technology used during the project. Although each project is a temporary endeavor with a definite start and end, the deliverables and results produced during the course of project and the end deliverables would largely vary depending upon the project nature and its application area. Fundamental framework for project management is provided by the life cycle approach irrespective of the activities and tasks involved in the project. The size and complexity of the project vary on its nature. Regardless of size and complexity, PMI (2008) recommends planning the projects on following life cycle approach and as shown in the figure below Starting the project Organizing and preparing Carrying out the project work Closing the project Project Life Cycle Approach Lawson and Gray (2011) recognized that project life cycle approach facilitates the project managers to effectively manage the project due to its limited life span and varied efforts required that can be predicted. They support that this approach is unique and specific to each industry and application area. Lawson and Gray (2011) divide the project lifecycle into defining, planning, executing and closing stages as shown below. This approach is synonym to methodology defined by PMI (2008) for project life cycle. Starting the project = Defining Organizing and preparing = Planning Carrying out the project work = Executing Closing the project = Closing Project Planning Project Management Institute (2008) identified need to develop and getting approval of a project charter as a primary step in project initiation. This document will contain the information and authority required to initiate the project and its preliminary scope. The scope of the project is refined and redefined as the project progresses (Khan 2006). Project is then to be broken down into phases and project life cycle determined. The stakeholders would then be identified and their need, wants, requirements and expectations determined. Based on these information final objectives of the project would be determined. Requirements and functionality of the deliverables would be finalized and approved by competent authority. Lawson and Gray (2011) stress importance of developing and finalizing the project scope for developing a comprehensive project management plan. This is the project scope against which project progress would be measured (Baguley 2008).Next is to make a realistic and effective project management plan. Once the project scope and charter have been finalized, it was important to determine team members and create work break down structure and entire activity list of the project to make a network diagram. Then the estimates of resources, time and cost should have been determined and critical path evaluated. This information should have been used to determine the project schedule and budget (Khan 2006). Mulcahy (2012) argues that the purpose of project management plan is to determine how the project work would be accomplished during course of project completion. PMI (2008) more clearly defines that the project management plan dictates how the project is executed, monitored, controlled and closed during the entire phases of project life cycle. The contents of the project management plan would differ on the basis of project nature, its complexity and application area. The project management plan is a result of integrated processes and is progressively updated, controlled and approved for incorporation of changes at appropriate levels already determined. According to PMI (2008), expert judgment is the sole technique for project planning and inputs and outputs for this planning process are as shown below. Mulcahy (2012) further clarifies that the project management plan is not a bar chart or time schedule rather a multipage document that contains inputs from team and stakeholders, the project performance baselines, and sub-plans for quality, cost, time, human resource, risk, communication and procurement management. It is these baselines and plans against which the performance of the project is measured throughout its life cycle. The project management plan is the tool that is consulted on daily basis to guide the project management team during project execution. Mulcahy (2012) stresses that the project plan needs to be well thought covering all phases of project life cycle, complete as far as possible, realistic, agreed upon, approved and formal. Thus it is very important that everyone part of team believes that this plan can be worked upon and remains a formal document that is monitored, and controlled and updated throughout the project. Project Organizations Project organizations are also often called projectized organization where the team members are collocated and a high volume of the organizational resources are utilized in the project activities. In such organizations, project manager has considerable authority and independence to make decisions. Projectized organizations often have departments but these are either answerable to project manager or extend auxiliary support to different ongoing projects. Below are shown the authorities of the project manager and his role in the project organization. Project Organization Role and Authority of Project Manager in Project Organization Lawson and Gray (2011) identified various factors that are likely to guide the choice of organizational structure needed to accomplish the project. These factors include:- Project size Significance and importance of project on strategic level Need for creativity and innovation Complexities inherent in project environment Budget and timeline requirements Resource requirements Role of Leadership and Sponsorship in Project Management According to Mulcahy (2012), basic definition is for the project sponsor is one who provides financial and other resources for the project completion. However, project sponsor has a wider role. His main role is to protect project from undesired changes and pilferage of resources, maintain the scope and pace of project and approve any changes through the change control system. It is the responsibility of the project sponsor to authorize and formally sign the project charter before the actual work on the project is executed. The role of project sponsor can be performed by senior management or even the customer if the project is being done for him. Project Sponsor has diverse role is different phases of the project like provide funding, finalizing requirements and project scope during project initiation; approving project plan, providing expert judgment, and reviewing WBS during planning phase; enforcing policies, approving changes, and managing tradeoffs during execution of the project work; and performing formal acceptance of the project deliverable during the closing part of the project. Lawson and Gray (2004) suggest that in a perfect world, a project manager would blindly follow a perfect project plan and would achieve the required results. However, this is not the case because project is another name of interacting with other team members and stakeholders to accomplish the job and obtained the desired objectives. A project manager has to expedite tasks to meet the schedule, assist to solve technical problems, help in containment and resolution of issues and conflicts and make decisions on tradeoffs between triple constraint of time, cost and scope. Performing of such critical roles and crucial responsibilities by both sponsor and project manager require demonstration of certain management skills and leadership styles. However, no single management style can be used to manage all parts and issues surfacing during the project, the project manager must select and decide the most appropriate leadership style that can be employed to get the job done at that particular moment. Mulcahy (2008) explains that the management styles are generally:- Directing – Telling what to and how to do Coaching – Guiding others Supporting – Providing opinion, advice and assistance Autocratic – Making decisions without taking suggestions and inputs Consultative – Inviting suggestions and ideas Consensus – Inviting group agreement for problem solving Project Team Building Team building is the process of developing cohesion, unity, coordination and understanding among the team members to increase the project efficiency and team performance. Mulcahy (2012) argues that team building requires a concentrated and continuous effort throughout the project life cycle. Lawson and Gray (2011) identify project manager with the responsibility to recognize need for conducting team building activities and sessions to improve the team progress and efficiency. It suggests that these activities can range from a minute agenda item to a professionally designed activity to improve relationships among the team members. PMI (2008) stresses enhancing the informal communication among team members as it helps in improving the understanding of each other and establishing exceptional working relationships. It adds that such team building activities become more important and crucial when team is not collocated and is working in a virtually without the advantage of having face to face interaction. According to Mulcahy (2012), team building activities may include but are not limited to Creating Work Breakdown Structure Five Minute Agenda Meetings Project Planning by getting entire aboard Milestone completion parties Birthday celebrations Outside the work gatherings Work Breakdown Structure PMI (2008) defines Work Breakdown Structure as “WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team, to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables”. The total scope and the work to be accomplished is defined and organized by the WBS and is created by the project team. It can be divided into smaller and more easily manageable pieces, each providing more information and detail of the project work to be accomplished. During the process for creating the WBS, first level of the project work is broken before the work can be further subdivided where each next level of WBS is the smaller part of the level above it containing more detailed information on the work to be accomplished. WBS included the work that is required to complete the final project deliverable and the work that is not part of WBS is not the part of the project. The next level component of the WBS is called work packages that can realistically be estimated with confidence, logically cannot be further subdivided, has end deliverable and requires no other information. WBS is the basic foundation of the project and all the work identified during project planning after creation of the WBS is the direct part of WBS. For examples, risks involved in a project are identified by the work packages and not by the entire project itself. Lawson and Gray (2011) highlight the importance of information contained in work breakdown structure to establish the baseline plans, against which project performance can be measured and monitored. Project Management Software and Its Benefits With the increase in complexity in project management and advent of modern computer technology and software, people have begun to realize that there could be a better way of managing and planning the project than the conventional pencil and paper. This has given rise to a number of project management software commercially available in the market and ranging from mere scheduling the task activities to communication and comprehensive planning and management of projects. The benefits of using project management software include A central database – A project management software has the ability to contain the entire data for the project rather than scattered spread sheets. Task Collaboration – Another major benefit of such software is to assign and forward the task for completion in next phase by another team member. Progress Tracking – Project Management Software help to formulate status and progress reports, updates on regular basis and access to such reports to all levels of project organization as defined in the software hierarchy. Greater Control Over Document – With the central database come the ability to exercise more control over the documents and the changes that are required to be made during the course of the project. Standardization of Process – When all team members are using the same software, documentation process and document control procedure, as a result processes employed in the project are standardized. Reduced Time in Staff Gearing Up – Project Management Software helps the new staff to quickly gear up with the existing practices by just checking through all the documentation and reports available half way through the project. Extended Communication – Project Management Software have inbuilt feature to communicate among all tiers and functions of the organization i.e., between project team, and with and among the stakeholders through email, message boards and sms through PCs. Integration – Project Management Software help to integrate the organizational data from different departments to the project data and can facilitate the exchange and sharing of information on both sides. Conclusion An organization’s success largely depends upon how a project is managed. Project management helps to thoroughly plan a project, identifying the associated risk and the actions required to mitigate or eliminate these risks. Each organization has to draft its own action plan based on established and recognized good project management practices to achieve the project objectives. There is no single plan that can manage each and every project because all projects are different and unique from each other in terms of end objectives, resources required, risks involved and the way of project execution. In conclusion, Project Management and the practice of the same have become indispensable to the modern day project manager and they form the basis of much of what is achieved during the course of a project. Thus, the idea of a project being managed professionally lends itself to the concepts and processes laid out for the practitioners of the art of Project Management. References Baguley, P. (2008). Project management. New york: McGraw Hill. Kerzner, H. (2010). Project management, a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. (10 ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Khan, A. (2006). Project scope management. Cost Engineering, 48(6). Lawson, E. and Gray, C. (2011) Project Management : The Managerial Approach. (5th ed.). New York: Mc-Graw Hill Irwin. Mulcahy, R. (2011).Pmp exam prep. (7th ed.). Minnetonka: RMC Publications. PMI (2008). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. (4th ed.). Newtown Square: Project Management Institute. Read More