Death March Project Management - Assignment Example

Project manager Student number: Student number: Course title: Lecturer: Date: Introduction A death march is defined as any of the several types of pathologic projects that are obviously at risk of bad outcome. In one way or another, the project may fail, damaging of either group or personal reputation. Some of the factors that lead to these failures are due to being over expectant on either scheduling or feature scope. Both may also occur in some projects. In addition, poor or no records are kept; poor training on the staff may also result on the project being termed as death march. In other words, a death march is one that its parameters exceed the norm with over 50%. They are divided into three broad categories. One category is small-scale projects where it comprises of at most ten people who work on a project that seem impossible and is planned to end within a bracket of three to six months. Secondly are medium-sized projects whose number of people lies between twenty and thirty people and the project they undergo is expected to last for one to two years. The last are large-scale projects; it holds 100 to 300 people and expected to take five years for its completion. Death march project one Introduction Melisa Company is a company that deals in transport services. It majorly deals with the global market. Serving the global market, means of transport that Melisa has employed include; rail, road, air and water. Five years ago, Melisa’s project manager proposed to the stakeholders that another railway was supposed to be constructed that would pass three countries to ease transport in that area. Without making any further research, the project manager was allowed to proceed. The project that developed was only allocated resources and its expected returns were not made. Melisa invested 60% of its total resources towards the project. The project was supposed to take five years to be completed. It did not come into operation immediately as was not completed. The stakeholders, project manager and all the committee who took part in the construction of that project got shock in the project because by the time, the project was near to completion, the air and road transport together with pipelines had been heavily used. The management of Melisa later realized that they should have predicted the results of the project. The project currently is bending though it has taken a good portion of the company’s resources. The company lacked managerial skills like estimating the costs that the project could actually require. By engaging in numerous researches from books, journals and other secondary sources, the company could have been in a position to come up with realistic costs of the whole project. In so doing, the company would have also developed an accurate project. A large project like the one of Melisa should have a work breakdown structure. This means that the company should break the whole project into small projects and allocating each unit of the project a team leader who will be in charge of it. This should have simplified the whole project in the end. Lacking this skill, the project did not complete because one person cannot be in charge of a larger number of people at the same time. Before developing a project, a funding proposal must be written. As for the case of Melisa, it should have brief itself on the project before it commences. This will enable those that are responsible to be aware on things such as estimated cost, period expected to take and other related factors. Another skill includes, planning the project. Project plan should be created first before the project is undertaken. In most cases, project plan is ignored in order to keep the work moving. Without project plan, the project will delay, be expensive and encounter numerous problems. Tools such as PERT charts, Gantt chart and logic network are used. The stakeholders should get reports on the progress of the project. This is the role of the project manager. As one of the key activities of the project manager, it should be regularly so that the stakeholders will know where to recommend. Lastly, the company should gather requirements for the project. The requirement gathering will be done basing on what the project will deliver in the end. Within the project, it was developed without coming up with objectives of the project (scope creep). It supposed that the railway be constructed like the other lines, but as the project was in progress, some few individuals came with unplanned adjustments to the projects. They argued that the line be constructed to cover other centers within the scope. In this regard therefore, the project demanded that its cost be added to enable the project manager to accomplish it within the stipulated time. This occurred because the project manager was not strong enough to stand on his principles; he could be easily manipulated while the executive manager had personal benefits towards the project. The company had employed only upward communication thereby giving room for fraud as the project continued. Melisa Company needed to first ensure that they fully know the vision of the project. This is done meeting with all concerned bodies of the projects so that a brief overview of the project be tabled and comments be reviewed. Project manager should get a full understanding of both his priorities and those of project drivers. Afterwards, he should create a list of ordered review from the time the project is started to the time it completed. The list should bear things such as budget, deliveries, deadline, both customer and employee satisfaction. This step will enable him in coming up with solid scheduling decisions when the project is in progress (Heerkens, 2007). Deliverables must be well defined and be handed to the project drivers for approval. From here, deliverables should be broken down into actual work requirements. At this stage, deliverables should be detailed and is recommendable that a spreadsheet be used. The project is broken into major and minor milestones; the project is completed and handed into project drivers for them to approve. Minor milestones should not exceed one month, the kind of method used to determine the duration that the project will take should allocate room for errors. Allocate resources to the schedule that has been created and come up with critical path using appropriate method. Lastly, change order forms are implemented as it aid in analyzing cost benefit before scheduling. The project management team should give room for new ideas before the project scheduling is finalized. Teamwork enables the project to be developed well, it is therefore the work of the project manager to work on the new ideas and base the arguments raised by the team in respect to the technological developments. For instance, the railway line that was put in place and has not yet been completed should have been given consideration in respect to technology. Melisa Company should ensure that there is good flow of information from the management to the project management without any hindrance. The project manager should be aware of all the process that will be involved in the project. Project two Masomo College is a learning institution that offers a number of diversified courses. The college is registered and is well known for its quality services. Masomo is renting a building because it has not built one of its own. The organization has a vertical structure in its way of governing the institution. Recently, the institution decided to build their building. As a result, the project manager, together with the stakeholders sat and finally agreed to buy land on where the structure would be constructed. Without wasting time, they gave out construction to one of the firms to develop the place. Without strong objectives and the planning on how the structure should look, it was stuck on the way. It is not because the cost was not estimated but because it did not follow government regulations. To date, the project has not yet been completed and further more funds for running the institution is diminishing. The institution is rated in the darkest spot as it is expected that it will soon die. The project manager has an overall responsibility of planning, monitoring, execution controlling and closure of a project to ensure its success. He should have the ability to resolve conflicts, ask penetrating questions and be in apposition to detect those assumptions, which are not stated as well as the general managerial skills. It is beyond reasonable doubt that success is achieved only if project management is delegated. However, majority of project managers fear that if it is done so, poor results will be realized. The project manager should be in a position to deliver good results that is appealing to customers, stakeholders and managers. On the other hand, the project may give bad results; the project manager should also be equipped on how to express himself regarding the results not hurting anyone. The management of the institution failed in that the should have guided the project manager when carrying out his duties so as to ensure hat the project is completed within the time span. In addition, the management are responsible for setting goals for the projects to benefit the while organization. They also ensure that the report that is being given by the project manager is in line with what is being done on the actual project. Other roles of the management that were looked down upon by the Management of Masomo College were picking the best effort, which was to be pursued as a project for the organization. They should have considered on those projects that fit the objectives of the organization as far as business is concerned. They are responsible for laying out strategies that will lead to the achievement of goals of the organization. They design projects of the organization, which will meet the already set strategy. It is through these set strategies that the project manager coordinates with the stakeholders to design and a project in line with the formulated strategy. They ensure that the formulated strategy is formulated and implemented as required. They monitor the progress of the organization. They therefore monitor the performance of the project that has been selected. It is through the project manager that the management monitors the project. He tracks the progress of the project periodically to ensure that the project is being made against the plan (Lock, 2007). They allocate resources to proposed projects according to their urgency. The resources that are allocated include money and staff. Because the project manager is below the stakeholders, he request resources to proceed with the project. Lastly, they are in the front-line in project implementation. This makes the project manager aware of what is supposed to be done by him. They do this through training, coaching and mentoring. During the project, it is the role of the project manager to lead the team in charge of the project in question. It is their duty to ensure that success is achieved in all the projects that are proposed and are developed. There are a number of problems that are attached to management. Some of them include; the customer may not like the result of the project. In another instant, the client may not be aware of the new project that has been established. Being a problem to management-customer relationship, the management should look on those crucial parts that need to be revisited. First, the project should be evaluated and the area of concerned be highlighted. Afterwards, adjustments are made. Slow communication also hinders the success of a project. The client may require that another project be implemented just before the intended one. However, because the management had made it earlier that it should come first, a misunderstanding will rise. The management should have good communication skills to ensure that the client gets to understand the issue. A project manager is responsible in leading his team in the development of projects. It is therefore necessary that the project manager is in a position to lead since he will be holding meetings. As he is the one responsible for making budget, he should also be able to come up with a good budget. Bibliography Heerkens, G. (2007). Project management: 24 Steps to Help You Master Any Project. McGraw-Hill Professional. Lock, D. (2007). Project management. Gower Publishing. Read More