Project Management Practice, Generic or Contextual - Dissertation Example

Project Management Practice, Generic or Contextual Introduction Reflective practice entails reflecting on actions with the aim of engaging in continuous learning process. Through reflective practice, practitioners are able to develop their capabilities, insights and knowledge with the aim of making improvement in areas not well performed. Practitioners have to reflect on their action so as to improve in areas that need correction. Reflection help prepare the person on the realities of the practice in the real world. Reflective practice is more effective in project planning and control. Planning a project entail a lot of preparation and strategies. Student in work role As a Human Capital Development project manager, I am responsible for mostly the entire life cycle of the projects which are in line with the short-medium objectives of the organization. I will focus on two distinct areas for the sake of my own benefit and for what is required of us. The project portfolio process; my role and aim are to perform a comparison with the current organizational practice of linking projects to its goals and objective. A good project should aim at ensuring the organization achieve its stated objectives and goals and also as a mean of controlling and monitoring the strategic objectives of the organization. The plan- monitoring – control cycle is the second area of concern. The cycle is essential in keeping the project on course, time and budget. My ultimate focus is to improve the current monitoring and control system by providing set of recommendations required and discusses it throughout the reflection exercise. The practice is vital for my future career since my organization is undergoing restructuring exercise involving set up of new functions that entail working together with other project portfolio managers with the aim of sharing the various responsibilities. The aim of the new function is to be able to manage the project portfolio process in the organization with the mandate of linking the project to the organization’s objectives. As a project portfolio manager, I will ensure the mission of Tamkeen is fulfilled through partnership with training and education providers, employees, public, private and nongovernmental organizations. The experience gained will be effective in the planning monitoring and control cycle of the various projects in the future. A good project plays a major role toward the achievements of the objectives of the organization. Planners make a lot of mistakes in the process and have to go back and do some corrections on the stipulated areas. Practitioners should posses a reflective practice paper where actions are documented. The person can go back and asses the area that need to be corrected (Besner & Hobbs, 2008). Project management ensures that most activities and projects are completed in time. Most organization performs better due to effective management of their projects. Project portfolio often links the strategies and goals of the organization with the project that the organization is undertaking. The plans and the activities of the projects have to be documented to act as a reference point. Unit concept and principles Project portfolio process aims at aligning the goals of the organization with that of the project. The process should not only be conducted at the beginning of the project but throughout the life cycle of the project. Project portfolio process is usually considered part of the monitoring and control of the projects. Monitoring of projects entails risk assessment and long term strategic planning. Some projects are usually brought down before they are completed, because of excessive risks. Others are shut down due to increased costs required to run them. Some projects with more advantages to the organization may come prompting the organization to subscribe to it and shut down the previous one. All this provides a concrete reason on why reflective practice should be utilized in project planning and management with an intention of going back and correcting where necessary to ensure the project become effective and advantageous to the organization in question. Project portfolio process has a variety of steps that promotes the success of the organization. Project managers are tasked with a lot of activities aimed at ensuring the project move toward completion in the stipulated time. Together with the council, a project manager is able to give direction and provide updates on the progress of the project. Linking the project with the objectives of the organization, enable the manager to identify the gaps that exist and provide essential feedbacks. A project monitor, plan and control cycle ensures the project is put on course (Meredith et al, 2014). The time and the budget required for setting up a project should be a long term goal for the effectiveness of the project. Current project management skills require manager to reflect on their action as they spearhead the project to the next level. A manager should ensure the project portfolio is well controlled and is in line with the objective of the organization. Project portfolio ensures that the goals and objectives of the organization are met. Project management students are required to have reflective approach towards management of future projects. There exist various steps in the project portfolio process. The first step is to establish a council that articulate and establish project direction. Project portfolio manager is usually part of the council. The council guides the allocation of resources and funds directed towards supporting the achievements of the goals of the organization. A good manager should be in a position to identify the risks and opportunities facing both the project and the organization. The manager should be able to come up with mitigation strategies by comparing what was done in the previous years and how the organization is planning to deal with the issue in the current world. The second step of project management portfolio entails identifying project criteria and categories. The variety of projects are brought up and assessed to identify the one that present maximum benefits to the organization. The goals, purpose and mission of each project are stated before the one with more advantages is selected. The third step entails collection of data pertaining to the chosen project. The manager and the council should include duration and date of the projects which are to be well documented. Past experiences with the project, schedule of the activities to be undertaken and opinion of the experts should be identified and documented. Some of the information can be utilized as reference for the progress of the project. Multiple criteria can be utilized in selection of a more beneficial project to the organization. The benefits of the projects may be identified through the use of certain dimensions such as customer satisfaction, revenue, profits, intellectual capital created and employee satisfaction (Meredit et al, 2014). The fourth step in project management portfolio entails assessing the availability of resources. Running of projects require the utilization of a variety of resources such as the funds and labor. The availability of both the external and internal resources has to be assessed. The council is tasked with the need to assess the resource requirement of each project and look for ways of securing enough resources for the running of the project. The fifth step in project portfolio process is aimed at minimizing the number of competing projects. The projects are passed through a variety of screens. The council should ensure the project is line with the achievements of the organizational goals. The project risk, benefits, support, resource availability, technological fitness, synergism and desirability should be made a concern during the reduction of the number of projects to be supported by the organization. The sixth step entails project prioritization. The project with greater score should be ranked top in the list among the others. Other factors such as new knowledge development and risk should be made a concern during project prioritization. The seventh step in project management portfolio entails selecting a project that is to be funded by the organization. The project selected should not consume all the organization’s resources. Some resources should be left free for the purpose of following up new opportunities, dealing with estimation errors and crises in existing projects. A reflective manager will ensure should take account of future options, additional experiences and improvement of new knowledge. The number of projects in progress should be documented and plan for completion made. The final step in project portfolio entails implementation of the process. the organization’s management have to informed of the process and all the activities documented. Reasons for project cancellations, non selection and deferral have to be included. Top management should be convinced to support the project fully and remain committed (Meredith et al, 2014). It is inappropriate and unethical for senior organization management to undermine the manager in charge of project portfolio process. The managers have to repeat the process regularly, reflect and make the necessary changes. Monitoring entails recording, reporting and collection of project information that is vital to the stakeholders and the manager. Control utilizes the monitored information and data to promote actual performance. Elements and activities of the projects should be monitored for effective control. Monitoring and control are two different tasks that help promote effective performance and growth of project portfolio process. The purpose of monitoring and control differ from each other. The information gathered through monitoring serves various objectives such as informing the management, auditing and making the organization learn from mistakes. Reflective practice ensures the managers are able to minimize the past mistakes and be in control of the project till completion (Meredith et al, 2014). Reflective assessment: ideas and insights Monitoring ensures that the parties involved have appropriate information that will guide them in controlling the project by utilizing tools such as project portfolio process. An effective control and monitoring system ensures the project manager and other stakeholders are well informed on issues targeting the project. Such information is vital in decision making process. Project management entails planning, comparing progress, checking on progress and taking measures that will increase the performance of the organization. The fundamental items to be monitored, planned, and controlled are cost, scope and time so that project remain within allocated budgets, stay on schedule and meets its specifications. The monitoring and control cycle entails a closed loop that proceeds until the completion of the project. During the initiation of challenging, uncertain and complex projects, the planning control and monitoring effort is minimized to allow real work to be done (Meredith et al, 2014). Most projects that are initiated without utilizing the planning-monitoring and control cycle ends up failing before completion. Project managers have to realize the vital role of the cycle toward the project. Mature project managers usually ensure the activities are well planned and in line with law. Most projects in several firms have ended up failing due to lack of appropriate planning. A project manager has to learn from the mistakes and should always refer back to his previous actions with an intention of ensuring improvement where need be. Monitoring system should be able to identify the time, cost and scope with an intention of achieving the stipulated goals. Data collection and analysis is usually done and transformed into information that is utilized in the decision making process. The information obtained is usually outlined and presented in a number of ways. Data collection process should target the information from the past practices and the current ideas being used. Documented information is vital since it enable the top managers and the council to go back and make the required changes for the purpose of coming up with a long term solution to the various issues affecting the organization, the use of technology in the current world has made it easier to share information among the project management team. The manager should be able to determine the exact boundaries within which the project has to be controlled. Control should be done at the various level of the project. Achievement of the project should always be compared with the plan. These will provide direction on whether to proceed with the project or the activities or issues that need to be changed to accelerate the success of the project. The project manager should ensure the activities are recorded and appropriate changes made accordingly. Control reduces the gap between plan and actuality. It is usually the last step in the cycle. Active controls ensure that the other parts of the cycle are properly aligned and well controlled. Control ensures that objectives of the organization are in line with the chosen project. Large project have a tendency of moving out of the stipulated plan and hence control is crucial at the start of the project. The project should be in line with the wishes of the client, the top managers and the client involved. Control is perceived as among the project manager’s major difficult task invariably involving both human and mechanistic elements. Sometimes humans, through inaction and actions set event chains into motion resulting to deviations from the normal plan and actuality (Meredith et al, 2014). Some certain events may result to negative impacts on the project. Frustrations, anger, irritation, apathy, helplessness, emotions and despair arise during the course of the project causing deviation and sometimes failure of the project to reach completion within the stipulated time. It calls for the project manager to intervene and be able to deal with such welter of confusion, inertia, emotions and fallibility. Key learning points and actions The management team is to work together to ensure the planning, control and monitoring cycle is well managed in the organization. Implementation of new policies should be conducted after consulting the senior manager and should be in accordance with the organization’s policy. Control is usually important in management of a project and human behaviors most often account for the deviations noted. Control entails interceding into somebody else’s activity and correcting it by highlighting the faults identified and the wrong that was done. Control helps the project manager to discover some of the messes done and thereby taking appropriate mitigation measures to enable the project to move to completion. Project control regulates the results through activity alterations. It also acts as organization’s asset stewardship. The physical assets of the project are to be controlled for effective performance. It entails the maintenance and use of the assets being utilized in the project. Last minute panic has to be avoided by effective planning. The team involved in the project should be well managed and controlled. The project management process usually provides the best environment for the nurturing of human behaviors. Effective control of the people involved will ensure the project is beneficial and successful. People provide ideas and take part in the decision making process which is vital in the planning-control and monitoring of the projects (Meredith, 2014). Managing the financial resource is vital for the progress of the project. Most projects are unable to run without the finances. Organizations spend a lot of capital in running of the many selected projected. The resources used have to be regulated and conserved. Accounting tools are usually effective control tools. It helps in control of project budgets, controls, capital investment, project accountant and auditing. Monitoring and control can be done by reflecting on the various activities undertaken by the organization. The ideas obtained will ensure that the project continues to stay on course. Reflecting on budgetary control will help to spearhead the project into the next level. Reflective practice enables the manager to keep track of the project by monitoring the preparedness of the project toward the various potential risks. Effective reporting mechanism should be put in place to help in control and monitoring. Critical reflections Effective control and monitoring entail creating the right situations for transparency and openness in the progress of the project. The project management team should be involved in the project and encouraged to give out ideas that will help spearhead the project to the next level. Through reflective practice the managers will be able to pass information to the stakeholders in time. The project manager has to keep the senior manager updated since they hate surprises. The project managers are supposed to always prepare themselves to face numerous challenges and risks and should be in a position to deal with it (Meredith et al, 2014). Through reflective practice, they are able to asses previous mistakes and look for better alternative solutions to deal with it in future. Organization culture should be changed in order to become more risk-robust. Make such changes require better planning and involvement of the various stakeholders. Looking back at future actions will also give directions towards the best idea to be followed. The manager should look for ways of converting the risks into opportunities for the organization and advice accordingly. With introduction of new technology and the presence of more risk in the current world, project managers should be able to implement new ideas in the planning-monitoring-control cycle. New ideas should be assessed for effectiveness before being implemented in the cycle of the project. Assessment of the new idea entails identifying its application in any other organization. Conclusion Reflective practice is vital in all the three cycles of a project. The cycles entail planning, controlling and monitoring. The manager should always be alert and should be in a position to react appropriately to any vital issue affecting the progress of the project. Updating the stakeholders on the challenges and the progress of the project is effective in achievement of the short term and long term organization’s goals (Besner & Hobbs, 2008). The management teams and planners should accept change and have to keep track of it. It is always important for the manager to revisit the documented information with an intention of correcting past mistakes or making certain actions better than it was dealt with previously. Effective communication will ensure everyone involved remain focused towards achievement of the organization goals. References Besner, C., & Hobbs, B. 2008. Project management practice, generic or contextual: a reality check. Project Management Journal, 39(1), 16-33. Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Mantel, S. J., & Sutton, M. M. 2014. Project management in practice. Read More