Principles of Project Management

Introduction

The prospects of project management are vital to the success of not only business ventures but also any other developmental projects. Initiation of excellent project initiation document serve as a blueprint of the overall activities inscribed to the project and therefore inspires accuracy achieving intended deliverables. Aapaoja, and Haapasalo (2014) defined a project as specific pursuits and efforts to yield a set of deliverables within clearly specified period of time, costs and quality constraints. Additionally, projects are said to categorize particular, complex and interlinked activities which have a sole purpose and ought to be undertaken within a defined time frame. Within allocated time and in conformity with defined specification. Out of the definition, a project is a characterization of elements which otherwise separates it from other activities. This work is a project known as “Project Medina” intending to build a new website and intranet within a time frame of one year. For students seeking engineering dissertation help, understanding project management concepts like these can be crucial for their academic and professional development.

Characteristics of Projects

Like any other project, Project Medina is a temporary prospect having a start and the end time; typical projects have the initiation time when her activities begin and run within a specified period of time to the designed end. Project Medina will run for 21 months within which all the activities will be conducted.

Projects are unique; projects are unique and vary with the other. The unique nature of projects defines different requirements and approaches towards making them responsive to the set objectives. In addition, it is the uniqueness which decides what project a manager use (methodologies) to get them done.

Projects bring about change; projects are initiated in a need to excite change. The change ought to be a desirable one intending to induce benefits to a broad range of projects proponents.

Projects have unknown elements which consequently create risks; projects operate in uncertain environments which then expose them to unforeseeable risks. The initiation of project plan therefore ought to only speculate such risks and put in place counteractive measures against such risks.

Finally, projects are initiated to solve a problem, or take advantage of a particular opportunity; projects are conceived out of a need to elevate a particular condition; or maximize the benefits accrued by a prevailing opportunity.

Project managers Roles

Project managers are core drivers project success; ensuring that all projects activities are in line with intended aspirations and objectives, by ensuring all potential risks are alleviated with speed and accuracy all time. The project manager equally integrate project proponents and ensure each one of them undertake his/her roles to instill project quality. The project manage is therefore responsible for planning, creation of working schedules, motivating and controlling team members (Assudani, and Kloppenborg, 2010);

Theoretical Frameworks and Methodologies in Project Management

A project management theoretical framework refers to a set of guidelines, processes, rules, templates, methods and principles used in the project management cycle. There are two major approaches commonly applied to this discourse namely traditional project management approach and agile project management approach.

Traditional Project Management Approach

The 1950s procedures and methods of project management are still applicable in modern businesses. Such methods are uniformly applied to endure robustness and applicability in a wide spectrum of projects from simple to complex ones. The major conviction about traditional approaches is that projects are typically simple, predictable and linear, having well defined boundaries that make them easier to plan in detail and follow a path requiring no not a lot of changes. The main aim of traditional project management approach is to optimize and increase efficiency by following initially prescribed project plan; and therefore follow a particular plan to enable a project completed within the planned time, scope and budget (Kwofie et al., 2015).

Despite the robustness as a major advantage of traditional approaches, the fact that this approach is applies its techniques and methods to a wide spectrum of projects is cited as a major disadvantage. The rigid methodologies and techniques herein might not be compatible with some projects (one size does not fit all). As the time dynamics ensure, projects become more complex with increased tasks and complex interrelationships requiring new approaches.

Agile Project Management Approach

The objections facing traditional approaches of project management necessitated the advent of agile approach which utilizes several methodologies such as Test-Driven Development, SCRUM, Lean, and XP. Agile methodology refers to the project management process especially applied in software development where solutions evolve through continuous collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their clients (Turner, 2016).

Agile methodology constitutes of three main characteristics making it more responsive than traditional approaches. These characteristics include iterative in nature and therefore it can be conducted in sprints (pieces) with each sprint building and improving off from the previous. Agile is an approach and a mindset and therefore can be distilled to a stepwise process (Wiegers, 2016). The approach is equally build more on efficient communication than documentation. This trait fosters excellent interactions between the project stakeholders and therefore understandings and feedback. Besides, agile focuses on yielding tangible and working results after every sprint, which optimizes delivery of intended results.

The Medina Project and Agile Methodology

The Medina harnesses agile approaches based on its iterative and incremental approach of management. Agile methodology will focus in helping my teams to maintain focus on the fast delivery of project value. Agile methodologies allow for continuous improvement, team contribution, flexibility, and delivery of high quality results. Scrum methodology has been selected as base Project Management methodology. The implementation of agile methodologies is associated to improvement of development process, better risk analysis, better quality, and less over costs. Preparation of team will be required before general implementation of agile methodology. This methodology may present difficulty in analyzing team structure, motivation and agile roles, practices and processes, and artifacts which are more responsive to project team management and motivation efficiency. This will necessitate selection of a small number of team members in every team (10 to 16 persons) (Mesicek, and Svoboda, 2012).

Components and management of Project Management Teams

The Medina project will comprise the following proponents;

This project team member will work on various phases of project development; and might be in-house staff or external consultants working as either full-time or part-time basis. The roles of these stakeholders will vary and may include the following (Turner, 2016);

The project team comprises of individuals extracted from different cultural, knowledge, and ideological orientations which therefore requires adequate management to ensure their ideas converge at a point of elevating the project objectives. Lack of adequate knowledge on project team management affects negatively the performance of teams and therefore affecting the entire project. Many project activities revolve around projects requiring teamwork and cooperation amongst the broad categories of proponents including subcontractors, support groups, personnel, partners, customer organizations, government agencies, and other suppliers. Organization of these teams is a science, an art and a challenge (Turner, 2016). As a project manager, my work will involve along complex, and technology-intensive environments which are highly dynamic, uncertain and fast (Pustylnick, 2012).

My project managers and teams are required to effectively network and cooperate among one another from various organizations, support groups, vendors, subcontractors, customer communities and government agencies. I will develop leadership, organizational and administrative skills to coordinate teams (Wiegers, 2016) and therefore becomes an important architect who understands the relationship between behavioral and organizational variables, who fosters the job process and offers general project governance for initiating multidisciplinary task groups into integrated teams; alongside triggering an environment favoring the involvement, conflict resolution, and commitment.

Nixon, Harrington, and Parker (2012) proposed fundamental steps in team management process. Whereas every team within a project tends to react to their assigned duties, they focus primarily in work processes, priorities and ensuring their teams are intact and undivided. To effectively manage teams, the following steps are fundamental;

Definition of team principles; which provide clear agreements to all team members and below which team members act, operate and conduct themselves.

Clarify roles and duties of team members; to ensure every team member is informed on his/her role in team, and provide a basis of accountability.

Development of balanced benchmarks for excellence; developing a scorecard helps in defining whether the project activities are in line with the predetermined objectives. Scorecards are reviewed regularly as a basis of problem solving and performance improvement pursuits.

Analysis of work processes; every team ought to be knowledgeable in the work processes for which it is responsible; and therefore the work processes should be defined, mapped framed within time framework.

Prioritize problems to ensure they are resolved promptly in a predefined manner.

Recognize contributions of team members and celebrate excellent results in sheer recognition of good accomplishments and agendas

Evaluate the entire process and activities conducted by each team member to make sure these activities are compatible with the realization of objectives.

Formulation of Project Management Plan

The Medina project plan will provide a definition of the project which intends to develop a website and intranet including the goals and objectives of this project. Additionally, the plan will form a basis of consensus between the following stakeholders; project sponsor, steering committee, project team, project manager, and other proponents.

The project plan elaborates and constitutes the following elements;

Project aim

This project will aim at;

Ensure the consumers if the website and intranet have input into its designs

Business and project objectives and aims

The business objects and aims for this project is to implement a website and intranet which

Control and Monitoring Project Risk, Quality, Change and Configuration

Initial risk assessment will seek to identify, prioritize and characterize and document a mitigation approach concerning risks quantifiable prior to the commencement of the project. Risk assessment will be periodically monitors and update in the entire project lifecycle with monthly assessments and open amendment by the PM. Mitigation approaches will be agreed upon by the project leadership and the viability of risks mitigation ordain time allocation into each steering committee mandated with identifying new risks to discuss mitigation strategies. The PM will communicate amendments and recommended contingencies to the steering committee on a monthly basis or more frequently (Carbone, and Tippett, 2014).

Project assumptions

The following assumptions presumed the project plan;

Management will make sure the project team participants are available to complete tasks as required.

Tools and Techniques for Risk Monitoring and Control

Risks are highly pervasive in any project undertakings which excite implementation of a strategy to prevent the preventable ones, and mitigate or reduce the impacts of the unpreventable ones. Risk identification and monitoring are the core foundations of various strategies for managing risks when they occur. Carbone and Tippett (2014) propose the following practices lead in identification and monitoring of project risks;

This involves reviewing submissions from all team meetings to deduce possible risks and put necessary measures to counter them. Major milestones made concerning the project execution re equally reviewed to provide risks insights. Risk ratings and prioritization may vary during the entire project lifecycle. Some changes may require extra quantitative or qualitative analysis (McLeod, Doolin, and MacDonell, 2012). Risk reassessment provide timely identification of risks before the project go deeper in implementation.

This involves examining and documenting effectiveness of risk response planning in managing risk and the effectiveness of the risk owner. Whereas risk audits are advantageous in bridging identifiable risks, they are prone huge time consumption in conducting the audits which might affect set schedule.

Risk management can be tackled and controlled through constant integration of the subject into project meetings. The constant meetings are beneficial since they provide an avenue for negotiating and resolving conflicts of change, costs and conditions in favor of the project success.

Project risks can either be positive or negative. Negative risks imply the occurrence of unanticipated circumstance potentially causing an irreparable damage to a project, while positive risks are opportunities which affects the project beneficially. Negative risks constitute the risk management plan and the project manager should strive to neuter their effects, while taking advantage of the positive risks (Moertini, 2012).

Risk management prospects begin with the identification of risks, through the analysis upon the project to identify any. After the risks are identified, they are assessed to establish their severity, likelihood of occurrence and controllability. The project manager in response develops a risk response development plan which stipulates strategies to reduce, mitigate or completely curb the negative risks from occurring. The project manager may be obliged to develop contingency plans in managing the risks. The last step will involve actualizing the risk strategy, and conducting monitoring to adjust a plan for new risks.

Evaluation of Project Success and Failure

The success of a project is mostly embedded on a strong and visible executive support, alignment with objectives, dedicated teams, accountability, and incentives applied to inspire desired behaviors. Chih, and Zwikael (2015) proposed projects too often for failure to fully appreciate the project scope, and failure to adequately understand the project consumers’ needs. Inadequate management continuity and incentive system encouraging delivery of positive outcomes equally leads to project failure. Hazır (2015) conceived projects as icebergs, most of which are hidden in water and therefore hidden from view.

There are various ways for measuring the success and failure of projects. However, the processes of defining projects success are not precise and are dynamic based on the nature of the project. A project is rendered successful if the achieved the intended objectives within the time framework allocated, within the budget and scope as initially identified in the project initiation planning phase. In most cases, the project which accrue success are those which effectively engaged all stakeholders, set realistic objectives, properly planned activities and clearly defined the fundamental requirements (Savolainen, Ahonen, and Richardson, 2012). Since these factors contribute to projects’ success, they should be integrated and ensured they stand vibrant amidst the execution process.

In another perspective, the element of good communication strategy, in conjunction with Jiang’s list of 13 present a huge potential of project success. Jiang’s list of 13 presents 13 major conditions which foster success such as competent manager, top management support, sufficient resource allocation, control mechanisms, feedback capabilities, client consultation, and troubleshooting (Muszynska et al., 2015).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the project initiation and implementation process is a construction of numerous tasks and phases which require in-depth teamwork, cooperation, communication, responsibility and accountability amongst all affected proponents. The project processes can be built on the threshold of either agile approaches or traditional ones, which this study believes are all effective when factors such as good communication, executive support, resource availability and proper definition of objectives are guaranteed. Project management is a complex subject based on the multidimensional requirements in running and fulfilling the project needs. It is for this conception, the project manager need to be competent enough and work harmoniously with the teams and influence an excellent communication strategy which allows for dissemination of information and feedback all along the development of the project. In addition, projects thrive in uncertain environments which subject them to risk. The risks should also be properly strategized to ensure they do not curtail the realization of the projects’ objectives.

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References

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