Engineering Management Project - Successes and Failures of the Project - Assignment Example

2622) PROJECT MANAGEMENT by Student’s name Course + code name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Contents Page Title Page......................................................................................................................1 Contents page................................................................................................................2 Summary.........................................................................................................................3 Part 1................................................................................................................................3 Overview of Prince 2 Project Management Methodology................................................3 Business Case and Stakeholders Scrutiny..........................................................................4 Organisation........................................................................................................................5 Risks Management................................................................................................................5 Quality...................................................................................................................................6 Control....................................................................................................................................6 Part 2........................................................................................................................................7 5 PMBOK Most Important Knowledge Areas and how they Add Value to Project Management Methodology......................................................................................................7 Part 3.........................................................................................................................................8 Analysis of an Engineering Management Project including the Successes and Failures in the Project.........................................................................................................................................8 Bibliography.............................................................................................................................13 Summary The Prince 2 project management methodology structure turns to be primarily dividend in various steps like initiation, project directing, and planning among others. On the other hand, Prince 2 requires being tailored to the project environment. In this case, tailoring turns to be the suitable use of Prince 2 on whichever offered project making sure that precise amount of themes, governance, processes, control and planning are in place. On the other hand, project management methodology requires execution of different knowledge areas of project management to ensure the project’s success. The knowledge area includes communication management, project time management, risk management and quality management among others. Part 1 Overview of Prince 2 Project Management Methodology First and foremost, project methodology thought in similar terms as cooking recipe, recognizes what would be demanded and the manner those ingredients would be blended to finally come up with the best meal (Prince2 2009). In a word, methodology contains the elements namely: overview, technique, documentation and sequence. As a matter of fact, Prince 2 turns to be a project management methodology standard within Europe and UK and turns to be the essential method for the entire UK government custom-made projects. The Prince 2 project management methodology structure turns to be primarily dividend in the following described steps. First step is launching the project which takes place merely once and evaluates and creates the business case (Prince2 2009). Second step involves project directing. In this scenario, formal structures of an organisation are required all through the project’s life counting the Project manager and Board, stages within communication which ensures continuity of the organisation. The other step is project initiation. This stage involves identification of the way the project would be administered, the Project Initiation Document (PID), forms the pact and whole project’s reference terms (Marchewka 2015). The other step is planning. In this case, plans concerning deliverables of project turn to be produced consistently right through the lifecycle as well as of the activity that assists to guarantee continuous approach. The other step is controlling. This step involves manufacture of documents that assist in managing daily operations and comprise of quality assurance and control and it turns to be an iterative procedure (Marchewka 2015). The other step is monitoring. This entails having a feedback process as well as taking action as required, however, this demands project board authorisation. The other step is closing. In this scenario, the time of the project turns to be limited and thus, there would be need for the customer to confirm acceptance of the project and ensure that the objectives that were offered within the original PID have been attained (or endorsed alterations to those goals have been met), or the project possesses nothing extra to be added. On the other hand, Prince 2 requires being tailored to the project environment. In this case, tailoring turns to be the suitable use of Prince 2 on whichever offered project making sure that precise amount of themes, governance, processes, control and planning are there. The following are explanations of the possible manner of tailoring Prince 2 while working within a programme environment by exploring how to adapt management products, processes and themes. Business Case and Stakeholders Scrutiny The business case’s important cannot be unfussy, since this turns to be the stage that offers the organisation the chance of evaluating the importance of the project as well as determining its expected contribution to tactical objectives (Jones 2007). Actually, business case is used in obtaining commitment of management and endorsement for business change investment. The project board which comprise of strategic managers engineer and present the new project’s case and also become the central overseers. It is the same group that assess project’s desirability and the manner it might affect the performance of a business. The project manager provides information to the Board’s Project for the purposes of enabling them to assess the projects in operational, economic, technical and social feasibility terms. For the purposes of enabling the board in making judgement within tactical terms, it becomes essential for the project manager to offer an evaluation of the non-financial and financial contribution of the objectives to make sure that the commercial and political objectives are achieved. Organisation As a matter of fact, Prince2 offers the Project Manager the responsibility and authority of managing the project on daily basis for the purposes of delivering the demanded products in the agreed constraints’ by the board’s project, while the Project Board turn to be executive (Talbot & Jaken 2013). Thus, it becomes important stating the project’s responsibilities as it is possible to separate them into accountability (failures and successes consequences) and authority or control. As such, the Board possesses the authority, but cannot be held liable for project’s failures or successes, while the Project Manager turns to be held liable though he/she might not possess the necessary authority over project resources and deliverables. Risks Management Actually, the project’s success turns to be inherently dependant on involver’s capabilities comprising of Project Board and Managers, to utilise their business and technical knowledge to assess and then manage the dangers (Halen, Vezolli & Wimmer 2005). The project’s risks ought to be assessed in consequences terms’ of those risks taking place. Quality As a matter of fact, quality management is regarded as the capability of meeting the objectives of the project and the process props up three major elements namely planning, control and assurance (Charvat 2003). The first element being assurance involves performance evaluation on a normal basis. The other element is planning. In this scenario, plans demand the commitment and approval from the suitable echelons of the organisation of the project. It has been discovered that project failure is most commonly contributed by lack of committing time for preparing the project’s different aspects ahead of its commencement. It is mandatory for methodology to offer a framework for maintaining and preparing plans at a suitable lifecycle stage. Control Actually, Prince2 application methodology enables achievement of a huge control degree through the subsistence of cost plans and resource and the obligation to sustain the business case’s viability (Jones 2007). Control turns to be hard achieving because of the changing environment within which the business subsists, thus whichever plans associated to business objectives’ attainment requires being consistently controlled and monitored as required. The structure of a formal organisation also assist to enforce discipline on the procedure of control since the responsibilities and roles of members of the project are clearly acknowledged in the quality plans (Charvat 2003). The reporting processes turn to be defined as it is necessary for the members of the team to give the project manager feedback of the activities’ progress. Part 2 5 PMBOK Most Important Knowledge Areas and how they Add Value to Project Management Methodology The first knowledge area I consider most important is communication management (Duncan 1996).This area adds value to project management in many ways. First is ensuring that project’s stakeholders remain suitably informed all through the project. Second, it assists communications management engineer a plan of communication which explicates the type of information to be exchanged regularly, and the members supposed to obtain it. Third, communications management adds value to project management methodology in that suitable project information is delivered appropriately, thus avoiding confusion or delays of project’s progress. The second important area is human resource management. This area adds value through; suitably supervising responsibilities and roles, planning of staff management and providing general project team management (Conchuir 2012). Additionally, it creates value through assessing project group members’ performance, assigning staff and project team’s general management. Last and not least, this area adds value to the project management methodology in that first, it obtains the appropriate and competent team for completing the project assignments and second, it improves the team interaction and the entire environment which enhances performance of the project. The third significant area is quality management. This turns to be important within which outputs of various processes turn to be quantified against some predestined acceptable measure (Heldman 2006). Second, it assists the project manager to make a plan of quality management. The quality plan requires being created earlier within the project as decisions made regarding quality might possess huge effect on other resolutions about risk, cost, time and scope. Furthermore, quality management adds value to project management methodology in that; it entails the activities and processes of an operating organization which determine quality responsibilities, objectives and policies such that; the project satisfies the wants for which it was embarked on. The other important area is risk management which involves planning the way of handling dangers to the project (Francis & Horine 2004). It adds value in that it helps the project manager to specifically recognize risks and make a plan of the way of responding to them when they take place. Third, it adds value to project management methodology in that; it increases the consequence and probability of positive occurrences, and reduces the consequence and probability of negative occurrences within the project. The last and not least area is project time management. This area entails sequencing and defining activities and approximating the resources and duration required for every activity (Duncan 1996). It adds value in that it assists in sequencing and defining activities and assesses the resources and time required for every activity. Secondly, it adds value to project management methodology in that: it identifies the particular actions that are to be carried out to generate the deliverables of the project. Third, project time management adds value in that it helps in monitoring the project’s status that helps in updating progress of the project and manage dynamics to the plan baseline. Part 3 Analysis of an Engineering Management Project including the Successes and Failures in the Project Actually, an Engineering Project begins by Project Board setting direction and making major resolutions until completion of the project. The direction is set after answering whether the project is worthwhile and viable (Prince2 2009). All the base information required is availed for making reasonable decisions regarding the project commissioning, where major responsibilities and roles get allocated and defined. The outline Business Case preparation and the Project Brief assembling, calls for frequent and regular consultations and interactions between the members of stakeholders, Project Board, and the Project Manager. As a matter of fact, the more the time is spent on obtaining requirements clearly grasped during the commencement of a project procedure, the more the time gets saved during the moment of delivering project through evading replanning, exceptions and other issues. The Project Brief contents turn to be afterwards redefined and extended within the Documentation of Project Initiation through the Project process Initiation. The activities that are involved in the starting up of an engineering Management project process are shared between the Project Manager, the Executive and programme or corporate management. The activities involve: appointing the Project Manager and the Executive, capturing earlier lessons, appointing and designing the team of project management, preparing the Business Case outline, selecting the project approach and assembling the Brief of Project and lastly planning the stage of initiation. The other step involves; directing the project process for the purposes of enabling the Project Board to be liable for the success of the project through making chief decisions and practicing general control whilst delegating daily project’s management to the Manager of the Project. The Directing a Project never covers the Project Manager’s daily activities, but it covers the works of those management echelons higher than the Project Manager: namely the Project Board (Halen, Vezolli & Wimmer 2005). As a matter of fact, the Project Board administers by exemption. As such, it supervises through reports while controlling via small decision point numbers. The Project Manager offers information to the board of whichever exception circumstances. In the Engineering Management Project, communication of information involved turns to be two ways that is; between corporate or programme management and Project Board. Importantly, the Project’s Board chief duty turns to be engaging with programme management and acting as the channel of communication. This requirement of acting as the communication channel and the way it ought to be gratified is documented within the Strategy of Communication Management. The Project Board offers amalgamated guidance and direction to the Manager of the Project (Jones 2007).The Project turns to be responsible for making sure that consistent justification of business exists. This Project Board’s responsibility is offered by the process of Directing a Project without the project activity overburdening it. The activities in the Process of Directing a Project turn to be Project-Board-grounded and their purpose is authorizing the project, offering an impromptu direction, authorizing initiation and authorizing the closure of a project. The other step is the initiating a project. This step involves establishing the foundations for the purposes of attaining an efficient project. This involves clarifying to the parties the intended achievement of the project, the reason for starting it, the manner outcome would be achieved, and the parties’ responsibilities in order to foster indisputable commitment to the Engineering project. The other process is the controlling stage whose purpose turns to be assigning work to be performed, supervising such task, reporting development to the Board’s Project, dealing with hardships, and taking corrective actions for the purposes of ensuring that tolerance is maintained at the stage. The other process is managing product delivery whose purpose turns to be controlling the connection between Team Managers and Project Managers through placing official requirements on delivering, executing and accepting work of a project. The other process is stage boundary management whose purpose turns to be enabling the Project Board to be supplied with adequate information by the Manager of the Project in order for it to be capable of reviewing the current stage’s success, approving the following Stage Plan, re-examining the Project Plan that is updated, and confirming continuous admissibility and justification of the dangers (Prince2 2009). The other process is Project Closing whose purpose turns to be offering a fixed position at which project product acceptance turn to be confirmed, and recognizing that objectives offered within the original Protection Initiation Documentation (PDI) have been met (or endorsed alterations to the goals have been realised), or that there is nothing more to be contributed by the project (Marchewka 2015). On the other hand, the Engineering Project Management would involve project management acquaintance areas. The first knowledge area would be communications management. On employment of this area, it would be capable of exchanging information between all the involved parties. Therefore, every activity in the project would be performed following the project’s rules and guidelines. This would make the project succeed in its mission. The other area would be human resource management. Through executing human resource management, the project would be capable of succeeding as a result of having of competent workforce. Additionally, human resource would be capable of finding solutions that might affect employees and solve them amicably thus, ensuring smooth running of the project. The other are to be executed in Engineering Project Management would be project time management. Through executing this area, it would be possible to determine the time and resources required to complete the project. This would enable activities to be done at the right time in order to ensure completion of the project ahead or at agreed moment. On the other hand, there are failures associated to the operation of the project. The first failure is limited resources. In this instance, it would be impossible to begin the project due to insufficient funds for implementing the project. The other failure would be incompetent personnel who would underperform making the project not to achieve the desired outcome. The other limitation would be poor management of time making the project to be completed late. Bibliography Charvat, J 2003, Project Management Methodologies: Selecting, Implementing, and Implementing Methodologies and Processes for Projects, Hoboken, NJ Wiley. Conchuir, DO 2012, Overview of the PMBOK Guide: Paving the Way for pmp Certification, Berlin, New York, Springer. Duncan, WR 1996, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, North Carolina, PMI Publishing Division. Francis, D & Horine, G 2004, PMP, Indianapolis, Que Certification. Halen, CV, Vezolli, C & Wimmer, R 2005, Methodology for Product Service System Innovation: How to Develop Clean Clever and Competitive Strategies in Companies, Assen, the Netherlands, Koninklijke Van Gorcum. Heldman, W, Cram, L 2006, Project+ TM Study Guide: Exam PK0-002, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons. Jones, R 2007, Project Management Survival: A Practical Guide to Leading, Managing & Delivering Challenging Projects, London, Philadelphia, Kogan Page. Marchewka, JT 2015, Information Technology Project Management: Providing Measurable Organizational Value, Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Prince2 2009, Managing Successful Projects with Prince2, Norwich, TSO (The Stationery Office). Talbot, J & Jaken, M 2013, Security Risk Management Body of Knowledge, Hoboken, NJ, Wiley. Read More