Fundamentals of Project Management - Essay Example

Institution: Student name: Students ID: Unit code: Date: Introduction Project management is known for executing, planning, closing and initiating teamwork to attain a specific goal and achieving a particular success criterion. A project, therefore, is a timely endeavor modified for production of unique services, products or results with its beginning and end well designed. The nature of a project contradicts itself with operations as usual. Which can either be provision, permanent, repetitive in product and servicing? Achieving project’s goals is a great challenge, as documented by Alavi, 2009, pp. 3. It is created at the beginning of the process of development and assessment of the project. These constraints are budget, scope, quality and time. (Kasule, 2011, pp. 63)The other challenge which is predefined as the secondary problem is more ambiguity. It is majored on optimizing the allocation of inputs that are necessary and integrate them to achieve the objectives predefined. Useful skills on project management as addressed by Turner, 2014, pp. 110, can be developed and learned through the project management's quality pieces of training. An honest evaluation of one's skills and work improvement for those lacking skills is necessary. The steps towards overcoming the challenges facing the finance and economic projects entail the continuation of individuals with education. This increases the person's knowledge on the possible problems that may sprout in the project. (Turner, 2014, pp. 117) Through training programs on the project using online platforms, the project managers quickly learn and practice their skills. The professionals at times explore in management projects programs. The online training gives a chance for the training students to be certified on Industrialization thus successful project implementation and build their career opportunities as well. Challenges to economic and financial aspects of project management. Lack of engaging stakeholders is a challenge associated with the project management sector. This occurs when disinterested clients, vendors, CEO or team members destroy a project. No repercussive measure can be taken upon them thus project managers who are skilled openly encourage feedback and communicate to participants of every step made on the projects. Set of unrealistic deadlines is among the challenges associated with projects. It is unfeasible expectations for the management to complete a project successfully under the unreasonable limitation of time. The successful managers are the only individuals informed of the decline in productivity possible results and loss of working morale, due to repeated questioning of the team for the impossible as documented in Bruzelius, 2005, pp. 143-154. Besides, deprivation of resources also is a challenge to the project management. For the effective and best outcomes in running of a project, the directorate has to provide sufficient funds. The pieces of training by the project management shows how one can obtain up-front approval and define needs, as well as helping the project manager prioritize and assign resources throughout the project’s duration. Learning to plan for and deal with risks is also part of the training by the project management. Tolerating risks is a trait portrayed by many project managers since they hardly make to the plans for the project. (Cicmil, 2006, pp. 70) Trust development, input gathering and identification of the projects’ part that has which chances of veering off-course are some of the job aspects for the project managers. Project managers need to know the direction they have to take in predefinition of the various possible scenarios. Lack of identification of contingencies, the project is exposed to risks of being mired in a set of projects that are unexpected. The project management needs to form a committee that identifies the problematic area thus the project being successful. (Kerzer, 2013, pp. 103) To the project manager’s they may face some challenges in handling the projects on board. If the manager lacks adequate skills for the project, the risks experienced are high for the project's failure. Training done by the project managers helps the leaders to determine the competencies needed for the task, the project managers is also in a position to access the workers available and training practice recommendation, hire or outsource more employees for the success of the job. The project manager's leadership traits/character and qualities are seen when the workers prove their responsibility in their role for the achievement of the success of the project. Many are the times when the project gets to a halt if the manager is not accountable for his role and tasks. Avoiding blame by pointing the mistake on other workers are common unproductive characteristics among many project managements. Lack of goals for management is the primary failure of the project as the plans on how to go about it. Economic plans should be formulated before any attempt to a project. The program should provide an estimation value on the finance required to fund the project in the research, casual laborers payment, and the raw materials if needed in the project. These undefined goals lack support from the management thus the failure of the project. This is documented by Singh, 2007, pp. 409-427. The scope also creeps a challenge to the economic and financial sector in project management. This occurs when the managing body prioritizes and allows the project extend beyond the expected objectives. Supervisors and clients mostly demand changes to a project. Only the strong project managers can evaluate each and every request as well as be making the decision on how and whether to implement the applications. Besides they have to communicate the changes and effects to the project’s stakeholders on the deadlines and budget for the task. Solutions to the challenges associated Several solutions have to be sought for the better outcomes in the project management. Defined goals need to be made before attempting of the project. This should be done immediately after reception of the project and identification and formulation of fundamental objectives for the project. Besides, financial and economic plans need to be made on the same project. Training should be done to the casual laborers, if available in the project, the project manager and another worker for the success of the project. This is to familiarize and impact skills to them on how to tackle the task. This reduces inaccuracy and wrong handling of the work thus reducing duration needed for completion of the project. (Meredith, 2011, pp. 47) The Identification of the possible risks in a project. Account for the use of finance should be made for transparency in the service as well as making the management accountable for every economic and financial step taken. In the finance department, a skilled worker should give balance sheet for the new assets and the long-term assets, and the previous liabilities with conjunction with the long-term liabilities. The new assets should cover several aspects which include securities that are marketable where debt and equity securities are considered, prepaid expenses, the available projects in the market for sale being valued at a lower market price or cost. Besides, cash and cash equivalents and receiving accounts on the money owed by the customers to the company including the doubtful accounts' allowances form part of the current assets. The long-term assets involve the capital (machinery, land), long-term investments and the intangible assets which include the assets which are not physical. To the current liabilities, we have the tax and rent utilities, payable wages, due interest. The current portions of the long-term debts and the prepayment by the customers. Long-term liabilities are also a solution to the challenges associated with the finance and economy in the project management. They involve the deferred liabilities on tax, the liability on pension funds as well as the principles and interests based on the issued bond. (Alavi, 2009, pp. 1) The activities to be practiced by the project manager and the financial management department should put into consideration entail control of cost and evaluation of the effectiveness of the project. Also, assessment of the efficiency of the investments, coordination of the funding efforts on the project and the creation, communication, and management of budget should be considered as well. Therefore the structure of handling the tasks assigned should put into consideration some factor. The tax to be paid for the project, personal liability's potencies and whether the manager is an employee of the institution or the owner of the. Business. (Nagappan, 2010, pp. 359-362) This determines the control power one has on the firm. The required licenses and the ongoing administration volume and the cost also are to be considered for a project to have minimal challenges associated with the economic and financial sector of the management project. The internal rate of returns should be well understood by the Directorate. It is seen as a growth rate if the project being worked upon is delivered in the required form, time and manner in the expected returns’ terms. Its calculation which should be known to the manager and the worker is: IRR=-1 where “IRR” is the internal gains rates, “FV” is the future investment value, “PV” is the present value and “n” is the period taken. The duration required for the invested amount in and the asset to be fully repaid by the cash outflows the generation by the asset. There is an easy way of risk evaluation associated with the proposed project where the payback period is expressed in fraction of years. Payback period=. (Needham, 2009, pp. 148) Credit provision to the customers is accompanied by high-level responsibilities, besides the regulation of crediting by the governing laws and regulations. Before credit supply to clients, the IT, marketing campaign has to collaborate on how to secure that the offered credit limits suitable match to those of the customers. The corporative development, marketing, and its analysis are a core competence. The key role is to target the offers relevant in the business to various customers with specific needs. Therefore its success lies in the strict analysis of the buyer's data, and a good communication sense combined. The business must have the majority of its employees having a background in marketing, development of corporate, digital analysis and commercialization and communications as well. Satisfaction of the partners and customers as well is a prerequisite to long term relationship creation. Close to half of the employees are supposed to be dedicated to the provision of excellent and high standard services and support customers either through the digital channels which include social media and television channels or through the telephones. The feedback from the customers should be used as a weighing method to the business project’s progress. The client's support center should be placed in wider businesses countrywide. In finance and economics, the business leaders have to make the analysis of the customer's data and ensure that the company has acquired maximum profit. This brings success to the projects granted for the firm to handle. Project controlling and monitoring involve those processes done to view the project's execution. This is done to identify the potential problems in a duration and taking upon them corrective, measures. Controlling and monitoring of a project consists of identification of corrective actions with the aim of addressing risk issues properly, monitoring the variables in the project which are scope, cost, and efforts among others, as a way of plans of management for the project and the performance basements on the project. Besides, monitoring measures require being taken to the ongoing activities of the project. Implementation and execution phases ensure all the plans of the project management are executed in accordance. The step entails coordination, management and accurate allocation of human resources and other sources accorded, like the budget and materials required. The output of the implementation and execution phase is said to be the deliverable of the project. Project Planning The primary importance of cost, time and resource planning is to estimate the workload needed adequately and to manage the risks that are probable to occur efficiently. Failure to properly make plans on the project constitutes to the colossal failure in the task thus the set goals not being accomplished. Project planning consists of the development of the budget, planning of the risks suspected to occur, estimation of cost and time required for the completion of the task, selection of the team to pursue the planning and development of the scope statements. Besides, the gain of a formal approval of beginning the work, estimation of required resources for the activity, creation of a structure of work breakdown and deliverables identification and schedule development have also consisted in the project planning initiative. BRM, Benefits Realization Management, enhances the techniques for the project management through focusing on the projects’ benefits rather than the outputs. It also measures the degree at which the outcomes and outputs are happening for the project to be on track. This helps in risk reduction of a completed project resulting in failure through the delivery of requirements and failure of the benefits of the requirements being delivered too. Also, the BRM activities aim at alignment endurance between the business strategies and the projects’ outcomes. The practices effectiveness is supported by the current shreds of evidence researched by the BRM events which influence the project's success from the strategic point of view across various industries and countries. Conclusion The business organizations that are leading have their leaders able to disaggregate the structures into a series of projects whose activities are evaluated and monitored before their integration into the system. Project management, as discussed in Hwang, 2013, pp.274-278, is a mainstay of the successful leaders of an organization. These leaders at times cannot afford to control the entire departmental projects which they are probably about to go under. This approach assists them in performance determination with the help of the planned budget, which is easy to compare to the qualitative and revenue factors. Well natured project ideas, sufficient and appraised resources devote for implementations successfully. Reference list Alavi, M. and Leidner, D.E., 2009. Knowledge management systems: issues, challenges, and benefits. Communications of the AIS, 1(2es), p.1. Albrecht, A.J., 2007, October. Measuring application development productivity. In Proceedings of the joint SHARE/GUIDE/IBM application development symposium (Vol. 10, pp. 83-92). Bruzelius, N., Flyvbjerg, B. and Rothengatter, W., 2005. Big decisions, big risks. Improving accountability in mega projects. Transport Policy, 9(2), pp.143-154. Cicmil, S. and Hodgson, D., 2006. New possibilities for project management theory. Methodology. Hwang, B.G. and Ng, W.J., 2013. Project management knowledge and skills for green construction: Overcoming challenges. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), pp.272-284. Kasule, H.M., 2011. Project planning, implementation, and evaluation. International Islamic University, Sultan Petaling Jaya Selangor. Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons. Meredith, J.R. and Mantel Jr, S.J., 2011. Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons. Nagappan, N., Williams, L., Ferzli, M., Wiebe, E., Yang, K., Miller, C. and Balik, S., 2010. Improving the CS1 experience with pair programming. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 35(1), pp.359-362. Needham, D.M., Sinopoli, D.J., Dinglas, V.D., Berenholtz, S.M., Korupolu, R., Watson, S.R., Lubomski, L., Goeschel, C. and Pronovost, P.J., 2009. Improving data quality control in quality improvement projects. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 21(2), pp.145-150. Turner, J.R., 2014. The handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). New York, NY: McGraw-hill. Singh, R., Keil, M. and Kasi, V., 2009. Identifying and overcoming the challenges of implementing a project management office. European journal of information systems, 18(5), pp.409-427. Read More