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Essay on project management
- 1. Essay Project Management Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time. ... The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints of period and time. A project management is the leadership role which plans, budgets, co-ordinates, monitors and controls the operational contributions of property professionals, and others in a project involving the development of land in accordance with a client’s objectives in terms of quality, cost and time. In its modern form, project management dates back to the early 1950s, although its roots go further back to the latter years of the 19th century. As businesses realized the benefits of organizing work around projects - recognizing the critical need to communicate and co- ordinate work across departments and professions - a defined method of project management emerged. The following includes: Project management is no small task. Project management has a definite beginning and end. It's not a continuous process. Project management uses various tools to measure accomplishments and track project tasks. These include Work Breakdown Structures, Gantt charts and PERT charts. Projects frequently need ad-hoc resources rather than dedicated, full-time positions common in organisations. Project management reduces risk and increases the chance of success.
- 2. Often, a triangle, commonly called the "triple constraint", is used to summarise project management (see Figure 1). The three most important factors are time, cost and scope. These form the vertices with quality as the central theme. In words, the triple constraint has four core elements: Projects must be within cost. Projects must be delivered on time. Projects must be within scope. Projects must meet customer quality requirements. More recently, the project management triangle has given way to a project management diamond - with cost, time, scopeand quality as the four vertices and customer expectations as a central theme . Scope Quantity Time Cost Cost Expectations Quantity y Time
- 3. The project management diamond No two customers have the same expectations. You must ask, explicitly, about each customer's expectations. If you don't know what those expectations are, you have no hope of meeting them. Project Phases A project goes through six phases during its lifecycle: 1. Project Definition: Defining the goals, objectives and critical success factors for the project 2. Project Initiation: Everything needed to set up the project before work can start 3. Project Planning: Detailed plans of how the work will be carried out, including time, cost and resource estimates 4. Project Execution: Doing the work to deliver the product, service or desired outcome 5. Project Monitoring & Control: Ensuring that a project stays on track and taking corrective action to ensure it does 6. Project Closure: Formal acceptance of the deliverables and disbanding of all the elements required to run the project Project Manager's Role The role of the project manager is one of great responsibility. The project manager's job is to direct, supervise and control the project from beginning to end. Project managers should not carry out project work - managing the project is enough. Here are some of the activities a project manager undertakes: The project manager must define the project, reduce it to a set of manageable tasks, obtain appropriate resources and build a team to perform the work. The project manager must set the final goal of the project and motivate the project team to complete the project on time.
- 4. The project manager must inform all stakeholders of progress on a regular basis. The project manager must assess and monitor risks to the project and mitigate them. No project ever goes quite as planned. Project managers must learn to adapt to and manage change. Project Manager's Skill Set A project manager must have a range of competencies: Leadership People management (customers, suppliers, functional managers and project team) Effective communication (verbal and written) Influencing Negotiation Conflict management Planning Contract management Estimating Problem solving Creative thinking Time management Project managers bear ultimate responsibility for making things happen. Traditionally, they have carried out this role as mere implementers. To do their jobs they needed to have the necessary administrative and technical competencies. Todaythey play a far broader role. In addition to the traditional skills, they need to have business skills, customer relations skills, and political skills.
- 5. Psychologically, they must be results-oriented self-starters with a high tolerance for ambiguity because little is clear-cut in today's tumultuous business environment. Shortcomings in any of these areas can lead to project failure. Barriers, Risks and Issues That Affect Project Success Many things can go wrong in project management. Any barriers, risks and issues can affect every phase and process ofproject management. Here are just some of the things that can possibly go wrong: Poorcommunication Disagreement Misunderstandings Inclement weather Union strikes Personality conflicts Poormanagement Poorly defined goals and objectives A good project management discipline will not eliminate all risks, issues and surprises - but it will provide standard processesand procedures to deal with them and help prevent the following: Projects finishing late, exceeding budget and not meeting customer expectations Inconsistency between the processesand procedures used by project managers, leading to the favouring of some project managers more than others Successfulprojects, despite a lack of planning, achieved through high stress levels, goodwill and significant amounts of overtime Project management being seen as not adding value and as a waste of time and money Unforeseen internal and external events impacting the project