Reduction of Accidents in Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services Project Using PRINCE2 Methodology - Case Study Example

Implementation of Reduction of Accidents and injuries in Lancashire fire and rescue services project using PRINCE2 methodology 1. Recommendation of the project Lancashire is characterized by so many fire outbreaks which could otherwise be prevented. The associated injuries are beyond description. The need to put in place control measures for these outbreaks and effective response measures in case of fire emergence is critical. This project aims to implement these measures and see to it that fire outbreaks and associated injuries are drastically reduced through effective emergence response services. Thus the project will formulate ways of enhancing and promoting equality and diversity to ensure that all participate in reducing fire outbreaks and their associated injuries. The PRINCE2 methodology of project management will be used to implement this project. Thus the stakeholders will be kept update on the progress of the project and necessary adjustment will be made during the implementation stage if need arises. Since PRINCE2 methodology allows reviews of the project during the implementation stage, the project will encourage continuous quality assessments and structured reviews of the project. For effective implementation of the project, the team members will be equipped with necessary information concerning the project. The project will involve identification of the most affected areas and appropriate education will be provided to both residents and other concerned parties. During the project, the major and common causes of fire outbreaks will be identified in order to assist in provision of the necessary education to combat these causes for effective reduction of the outbreaks. The use of PRINCE2 methodology to implement the project, will allow easy decision making, application of the lessons learned to other related projects and for easy communication among the stakeholders and the team members for easy management of any deviation from the anticipated plan. Thus this methodology will ensure that most of the plans are carried out on time and all objectives are attended to. 2. Human resources issues anticipated 1. Selection – selection is the most important and demanding requirement in ensuring the right is in place, and a worker force that ensures the fundamentals of an organization championed. This means that a well documented and identified job analyses, job description and personal attributes should be considered during this period. After the right job position and postings have been identified, the target population is informed, which then allows means such as interviews to determine their competence and capability of fulfilling the organizational requirements. 2. Skills – people and postings filled should be analyzed to determine whether the new employees and the requirements of the posting complement each other. This means that the skills of the new hire, and the present staff should be developed and training ensuring high capacity team is in place. Thus, all employees in the organization should be proficient in what they are doing, and clearly understand what the organization requires to achieve. 3. Reward – the system in which the employees are reward should be clear and should not be biased. Moreover, it should bring into consideration equality and diversity. In addition, the rewarding system should include monetary and non-monetary terms. 4. Motivation – all the employees should be motivated to ensure they maximize their time and resources into achieving organization goals. This means that they should be provided with duties that are challenging, appropriate framework of promoting and developing the employees, and other fundamentals that makes employees feel been appreciated. 3. Issues pertaining project management I anticipate facing several problems in the course of running the project. This will mainly be linked to time constraints, budget and scope constraints and their management. Though, several promises have been made for the provision of resources required to run the project, problems may be encountered if some of these promises are not honored. Planning of the project may run into problems if the funds required to run the project are not availed on time. If this happen then some activities may be hampered from taking place due to limited resources which may be available. This will imply that there will be extension in terms of time required to complete the project since more time will be required to solicit these resources. The budget of the project may also be reviewed during the running of the project in order to accommodate such shortages which may be detrimental in the accomplishment of the goals and objectives of the project. The use of the PRINCE2 methodology Implies that the contact between the employees and the management will be limited and thus people management issues may arise. This may compromise the quality of the work and hence make the project quality to be poor. This may lead to less output per person and hence lead to further delays in the completion of the project which may make the costs of the project to escalate. Leadership issues may also arise in relation to communication between the stakeholders and the management since most of the issues will need to be approached democratically of which there may be a problem reaching a consensus. This may eat into time required to make decisions and make the project run on schedule. 4. Essential leadership skills in project management The ability of a leader to apply the methodologies, tools and techniques of project management are dependent on his or her leadership skills. Some of the skills required for effective and efficient running of a project include the ability to get the right team members for the right tasks, servitude skills, ability to plan for activities with the stakeholders while encouraging democracy and being exemplary. The ability to identify right team members for the right task ensures that the quality of the work is of high standards and the time taken to accomplish a project is shortened. However, due to budgetary constraints many leaders are forced to compromise the quality of the project and hiring people who are not well trained. Since there is no team development in the implementation of the project using PRINCE2 methodology such an action always results in poor results of the project. Servitude skill enables leaders to identify the various needs of the team and ensure they are attended to. It also helps in engaging the stakeholders democratically during the planning stage in order to ensure correct plans for the project are put into place for effective running of the project. Contrary to this, some leaders are found at cross roads on whether to support democracy or not on some issues which are very deterministic on the outcome of the project such as the cost of hiring a qualified personnel and the quality of the project. The need to be exemplary is an essential skill in boosting the morale of the team members who in most cases do what the leader does. To be able to apply this skill the leader need to have a small group to manage. Many leaders accomplish this by delegating duties to support staffs that represent him in the smaller units which are easier to manage. These support staff are in constant contact with leaders and are bound to implement what the leader does. 5. Comparison of PRINCE2 and Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodologies Project management is a process which involves planning, scheduling and prevention stages in order to solve problems and fill existing gaps. There are several types of project management methodologies. Methodologies provide techniques for risks reduction and ability to plan for the project. Here PRINCE2 (projects in controlled environment version 2) and RUP methodologies are compared. Prince2 methodology involves: identification and description of products, reviewing of the quality of the products, ways of controlling changes and management of the assets of the project. RUP methodology is a development method which is iterative. Project inception, elaboration, construction and project transition phases make up the RUP methodology. The Prince2 methodology offers some advantages as compared to other methodologies. First, it is independent from its application stage. Second, the methodology is in the domain of the public and other services are tendered for differently. Furthermore, its application is independent if the size of the project. Finally, in Prince2 methodology the control of environmental change is easier. However, Prince2 methodology has several shortcomings. For instance, those using it are supposed to be thoughtful throughout the project process. In addition for it to be efficient it needs to be tailored to meet the situation at hand. Finally, there are no human factors in PRINCE2 methodology scope. The RUP methodology is advantageous for the running of projects which are large especially for the development of software. The fact that it is iterative makes it of an advantage over other methodologies. The project feasibility and the stakeholders’ commitment is established prior to project implementation. There is also human factor in this methodology which ensures the quality of the outcome of the project is high. One disadvantage of this methodology is that it is dependent on the size of the project, that is, it is suitable for larger projects. If RUP methodology was employed in this project, most of the human resource related problems could not arise because it encourages the training of the personnel. In addition, all issues concerning the project funding and running are sorted out at the inception stage and hence the project would have limited problems during implementation stage. However, since the RUP is rigid, the lessons from the project could not be applied to smaller projects which are aimed at addressing similar issues. 6. The success of reduction of accidents and injuries in Lancashire fire and rescue project report PRINCE2 methodology and leadership skills used in the project contributed positively to the success of the project. The identification and recruitment of qualified staff was made possible by the skilled leaders. This ensured that the quality of the project outcomes was of high standard. The budget of running the project was approved as a result of democratic engagement of the stakeholders. This enabled for enough allocation of funds to most activities of the project. PRINCE2 methodology allowed the monitoring the progress of the project and the related quality assessment. This contributed to the success of the project. Communication among team members was encouraged by the management. This helped in the resolution of issues affecting the team and the project at large and hence resulting in effective management of issues. Despite the success achieved, much debate ensued during the initiation stage on the validity of employing qualified personnel verses compromising the quality and employing persons with low qualification who could be paid moderate wages. Another issue which arose was the inability of the available funds to cover a large area affected by the fires. This had to force management to identify the most affected areas and carry out the project there. Thus for effective management and quality outcome of any project, the management need to be highly skilled in the tools, techniques and the methodologies they chose to employ in running of the project for it to be successful. In addition, a balance has to be struck to balance between time, scope and budget constraints which affect the quality of the project outcome. Read More