Project Management: Overview of Prince 2 - Assignment Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Name Course Tutor Date PART1 Overview of Prince 2 The term Prince is a short form of (project in controlled environment). This is a well designed method for effective project management. It was created by the central computer and telecommunication agency to assist in improving the guidance on the government projects. This method was developed from the scores of the experts, projects managers and the project team members who had taken some from their past mistakes and successes. Thus, this new method of implementing projects is aimed at ensuring that any project being established is completed in a perfect manner and in the right time using less expense ( Mike 2002 23). It is a modern method that has been adopted by the developed nations around the world to initiate the government projects. The main reason why it was established is that managers and other stakeholders realized that many of the government and private firms’ projects failed to mature. This was due to mismanagement or other reasons which rose in the course of the project implementation. Most o the project take a considerable period of time say several years before they are completed. Thus, during this time, other internal or external factors may rise and interfere in the progress of the project. It is advisable and wise that any project being planned or implemented should have a good management method. The method guides the project through controlled and well-managed activities to attain the projected results. Prince2 has all the principles that concern a good project management to evade the problems and failures hence it aid in achieving the project’s goals. Some of these principles are; first, a project is treated as a finite process that has the beginning and the end. Secondly, for successful completion of a project, it needs to be managed. Then lastly, for honest commitment to the project by the stakeholders, the all these parties should be in a position to know what exactly the project need to achieve and the outcome of the achievement. Actually without a project management method, the people who commission that project and the ones who implement the project would obvious have differentiated views concerning how the process would be carried out. An unorganized project would make those involved not to be clear with their responsibilities and accountability hence there will be a lot of confusion in the management and implementation of the project ( Mike 2002 11). Therefore, project in a controlled environment (prince2) method is a standard that has been adopted extensively because it is now widely recognized despite of its few years it has been in existence. Being a new and modern management tool that has been introduced, Prince2 has many service providers that are offering training, consultation services and tools that aid in using this method. The method has been adopted by the developed nations only and other developing nations is when they are yet to adopt it, the prince method is now on demand. Thus, there are international accreditation programs for trainers and consultants that are ensuring a high quality and consistence level of services to any organization. Moreover, there are active group of personnel that are dedicated to the support, promotion and reinforcement of this method. The scope of prince 2 method shows that this method fits well in the business environment. In real sense, prince 2 is not designed to every aspect that is relevant to project management. The techniques and tools for project management tend to vary according to the kind of the project being implemented and the corporate environment. We have other proven methods that cover certain aspects of project management which have been excluded from the prince2 method. Some of the proven methods are; motivation, teamwork leadership and risk management techniques. Prince 2 covers the management process of the project and the management of the resources that are used in implementing the project; however, it does not cover the specialists’ techniques that are involved in the designation of the products. Prince 2 method is designed to suit any type of project in various environments. It has a complete set of ideas and management processes that are needed to complete the project at a minimum time and expenditure. This method is often focused on delivering specified products so as to attain particular goals (Mike 2002 9). Thus, it aids that project to capture the definition of the business benefits. The benefits of a successful project using prince 2 method comes in form of financial form like addition profits, strategic plans to counter competition, and legislative in that the corporate is able to fulfill the requirements of the law. Prince 2method has the processes that are well regulated and ought to follow by the implementers to produce the projected results. It has eight distinctive processes that should be completed progressively that is the first process should be completed first before proceeding to the next one ( Mike, 2002 7). These processes run from the run the project is initiated through controlling and management to the time of completion of the project. The eight process are; starting up the project process, planning process, directing process, project initiation process, controlling process, managing stage process, managing product process and project closing process. Prince2 method has also the techniques that are applied in managing the project; however, it offers very few techniques. One of the techniques this method provides is product based technique. This technique helps the project to define the standard of the quality to which every product has to conform. This is because every product needs the technique for the control of the changes. This method also describes a particular technique that its quality review that is specifically suited for the quality testing of the document based product. There are so many benefits that accrue for the corporate that adopt the prince 2 method. Nowadays, many organizations are becoming aware of the opportunities and benefits for adopting prince 2 methods in embracing their business change. Some of these benefits are; the method is repeatable, teachable, it builds on experience and early warnings of the problems. In addition, the method provides with the organization with controlled management of change in terms of investment. It also offers active involvement of the users and stakeholders throughout the project. Therefore, prince 2 method is a valid professional method that is tested and proved to work and can produce results. PART 2 Comparisons of prince2 and PMBOK Project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) like the prince method is also another modern method of project management. There area so many similarities in their management and implementation process. However, the PMBOK method is an olden method that has been in existence for a log time. As discussed earlier, Prince 2 method is when it has been introduced in the recent years in fact, other nations have not adopted it in initiating their projects, but this one of PMBOK has been in existence for a considerable length time. One of the basic similarities of these two processes of project management is that both of them have got systematic processes that ought to be followed by the stakeholders to achieve the project products. They have the planning process which is the initial process before starting up a project. Processes such as controlling, directing and management of the stages appears in both of these methods. Thus the processes in every method are very fundamental to ensure that the establishment of the project is done in a systematic manner so as to ensure the completion of the project by achieving the desired results. In both Prince and PMBOK method, there is the management of risks. Each of these methods takes care of the precaution that in the course of the initiating and executing the project, some factors may arise and alter the processes of managing the project hence the altering the desired results ( Mike 2002 43). Thus, the risk management plan is laid so as in case a project faces a certain risk, there would be an already alternative to salvage the situation. This fits well with the modern environment for business where many disasters tend to occur and these disasters may influence the process of implementation of the project. Both of these methods use the same principles in management of the project. For project to be successful, certain principles need to be set so as to keep the management of the process in line with the aims of the project. The principles help the project implementers to stay on the initial goals of the project even if the project lasts for several years and the management team is changed ( Mike, 2002 72). This implies that principles are the guidelines that ought to follow since they are developed by the experts hence any deviation from them can easily lead the whole project not to produce the projected results. These methods are both comprehensive in that their techniques and processes can be scientifically be proven. The planners tend to estimate the cost of the project and project the amount of profits that can be realized after the successful completion of the project. This means that highly complex techniques are used to do these estimations. Producing the standard to which the products of the project have to look like needs good scientific knowledge that and also need professionals. One main differences between these two methods as mentioned earlier is that PMBOK method is an olden method thus, has been adopted by many corporate and governments. Due to its long time of being in existence it is understood well by many stakeholders because its processes are straight forward and easily structured. The processes and techniques are not complex in that even less learnt people can understand it easily. Unlike the Prince 2 method which is more modern and has employed a more scientific approach in that some of its aspects are only understood buy the professionals. Moreover, the PMBOK method has about twelve detailed processes. Each process defines what is done in every stage. But the prince method has condensed all the processes in only eight processes. Although it is also comprehensive, but other processes that are in PMBOK method are concealed in other major processes. Since it is a more scientific method as compared PMBOK, it is easily understood by the professionals than the other people. This is the reason why until now it is practiced by developed nations that have good professional team than in developing nation that have less professionals (Murch, R. 2004). However, prince2 method sounds to be more efficient and time saver because of the scientific methods that are used unlike PMBOK which is more of manual hence time consuming and involving. PART 3. An analysis of engineering project This part is all about analyzing a software engineering management project. In organizing a software engineering project, the management participates in designing of the formal structure of the software engineering tasks and authority relationships.Organizing means determining the project activities to attain the objectives of the project. The main purpose of organizing is to focus the effort of other selected goals (Thayer 1987, p 30). Some of the major issues in organizing a software engineering project are first difficultness in determining the best organizational structures of the project. For example, determination of the project matrix and functions is difficult. Secondly, the responsibilities of the tasks some times are not clear. Thirdly, the software functional organization and the members sometimes do not believe that the software project is not going to benefit them. Some of the activities involved in analyzing a software engineering project are; identification and grouping of the tasks required. In this task, he manager is responsible with reviewing the tasks that should be done. He should divide and group those tasks. The manager gives titles to the grouped tasks for example assigning programmer analysis task, operation branch and many more. The second activity is selection and establishment of the organization structure. Software systems are normally built by organization known as software development project; they are organized according to several different organizational types (Thayer 1987, p 27). We have conventional organization structure, project organizational structure and team structure. The next activity is the creation of the organization positions. Here, the manager creates the position titles and the definition for every organization position. The fourth activity is the definition of the responsibilities vested for each authority. The manager establishes the authority and the relationships between positions and tasks (Thayer 1987, p 34).This is done to avoid the confusion of the tasks by the members so that every individual knows what role he/she supposed to play. The next task of the manager is to establish the position qualifications for each project position. He should establish the academic qualification and training for each position. Under this, he should also establish the experience needed for every position. The last activity is documentation of the organizational structures (Atesmen, 2008, 54). The management should now document the organizational plans and even assumptions. Moreover, the organizational structure, responsibilities and relationships between the organizations should be documented. Staffing a software engineering project involves all the management activities that involve filling and refilling the positions in the organization structure. In other words, staffing is filling the roles crated by the project organizational structure through and proper selection, appraisal and the personnel development (Thayer 1987, p 25).The main purpose of staffing is ensuring that the roles created are filled by the personnel that are willing and qualify to occupy them. Like other activities, staffing has got issues or problems for software engineering project. The first problem encountered in staffing in engineering project is the productivity of programmers, analysts and software engineers vary from one individual to another. Another problem is that universities around the world are not producing a good number of computer science graduates who understand the software engineering processes (Thayer 1987, p 23).Then the last issue is that the project managers are not always selected to management positions with management training. Directing is another task that is found in the software engineering project. It consists of all of the management tasks that deal with interpersonal aspects by which project personnel come to understand and contribute to the attainment of the set goals (Atesmen, 2008, 54). Like staffing, directing involves people giving leadership to the project management process. Some of the activities done under directing is supervision of the day to day assignments, delegating the duties to other people, coordinating the activities of the project members and ensuring communication between the project sections. We have different types of software engineering projects. We have egoless project team, chief programmer team and hierarchical project team. Egoless programming team consists of ten to twelve members. Here,. The discussions and decisions are reached through consensus. In this kind of team, there is permanent central authority where leadership responsibilities tend to rotate. Chief programmer team consists of either three or four assigned permanent members or other members such as program librarian and program analysts. The chief programmer manages all the technical issues and makes all the decisions in the management of the project. In hierarchical team, the project leader manages senior programmers and senior programmer in turn mages junior programmers (Thayer 1987, p 33). It is called hierarchical because of the top to down flow of authority. The main work of senior programmers is to ensure quality. The table below show ts the strength and weaknesses of these three kinds of software project team. Type Strength Weaknesses Egoless project team -democracy works best for difficult and more complex problems -there is overall productivity and quality products -The customers get job satisfaction -Due to communication complexity, productivity is low -Its not a good method in rush projects -The team tend to select more risk alternative that may cost the corporation Chief programmer team -The is quick completion of jobs -It works best with strict deadlines -Needs a well experienced chief programmer -tend to lower the morale in the project -It can be applied to brainstorming problems Hierarchical -It suits to large projects -Each individual is responsible for the team’s efforts -It needs large supervision staff -It does not suit small projects. Bibliographic references Atesmen, Kemal. (2008). Global engineering project management. Taylor &Francis. Washington. A guide to project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) (2000). Project management institute. Newton Square. Pennsylvania. Diana, Centeno et al. Project management tool analysis and recommendations white paper. Accessed on web 25th Feb 2013. Retrieved from http://km.nasa.gov/pdf/55155main_pm_tool_paper.pdf Faniran. (2005). Engineering project management. Pearson education. UK. Goodman, Louis &Ignacio, Rufino. (2010). Engineering project management. Taylor &Francis. Washington. UK. Mike Allen et al. (2002). Prince 2. The stationery office. London. UK. Smith, Nigel. (2002). Engineering project management. John Wiley &Sons. UK. Thayer Richard (1987). Software engineering project management: A top down view. California State University. Sacramento. UK. Retrieved from Kousholt, B. 2007. Project Management: Theory and Practice. Kbh, Nyt Teknisk Forlag. Murch, R. 2004. Project Management: Best Practices For It Professionals. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall PTR Ó Conchúir, D. 2011. Overview of the PMBOK® Guide Short Cuts for PMP® Certification. Berlin, Springer. Zhang, Qinghua & Fu Qiang. (2009). Performance evaluation model of engineering project management based on improved wavelet neutral network. Accessed on 25th Feb 2013. Retrieved from http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperDownload.aspx?DOI=10.4236/jssm.2009.21002 Read More