As Project Management evolves a new set of issues is demanding attention - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Consequently, complexity and drastic change build a high-risk environment wherein decision makers have little faith about the future. They view experiences through dense perspectives and base their decisions on guesswork and small measures of certainty (Lewis 2007).
Making things more difficult is the aggressively competitive environment that has emerged with the introduction of the Internet and the spread of globalisation. This competitive environment has motivated a fascination with winning customers’ hearts and minds. In the contemporary business environment, customer satisfaction rests at the core of most business endeavour (Lewis 2007). This paper will explore the new business climate and their implications for project management. The traditional saying “the only constant is change” (Frame 2002: 26) ceases to be a witty oxymoron and is now a prevailing reality in contemporary business life. Untapped change is a primary determinant of project failure. Changes in markets, technology, regulations, budgets, and personnel motivate changes in project requirements and demands. Project personnel discover themselves operating in ‘rubber baselines’ (Frame 2002: 26).
The abundance of alternatives is obvious in project management. For instance, there are several workable ‘scheduling software packages’ (Howes 2001: 13) being recommended by suppliers. How does an individual choose from such diversity? A great deal of the complexity of present projects is linked to the diversity of alternatives confronting all project actors, from customers to team members to project managers. These alternatives cover all project features. For instance, consider the alternatives related to the buying of a product or service (Howes 2001). Practically any product or service to be used on a project has a variety of suppliers or providers, each with its distinct qualities (Frame 2003). In ...Download file to see next pagesRead More