Project Management
This is the discipline of organizing, planning, managing and securing resources so that one can successfully complete a certain project and meet the goals and objectives that had been set for it. Note however, that project management should not be confused or mistaken for program management; although technically, a program is a series of several groups of interdependent projects (Sebastian, 2007).
A project will normally be a temporary endeavor, with a define beginning and a clear ending. It is usually common for a project to be constrained within time limits in addition to the deliverables and/or funding. This in essence distinguish it from the almost permanent “business as usual” that more often than not are repetitive and work for the sole purpose of producing services or products.
Given these differences therefore, practically, the two systems are fundamentally different and so too is their management which requires the growth and development of distinct skills and adoption of separate styles. The typical constraints such as scope, budget and time give project management the basic and primary challenge of achieving all the project objectives and goals. That notwithstanding, there is the secondary and more ambitious challenge; that of optimizing the allocation and integration of all the necessary inputs to meet these objectives (Ireland, 2006).
With all due considerations, a project manager must have in mind the objectives, the cost and the time line for the project he is working on. He must also consider the responsibilities and the roles that each participant will play and the stakeholders involved. There are several approaches that can be use in management of projects.
First is the Traditional Approach of project management. This seeks out a series of steps: initiation of the project, planning and designing, execution and production, monitoring and controlling and eventually the completion of the project. This however does not mean that the projects have to clearly pass through all these stages, leave along get completed. Even though the planning may differ in the long run as a result of unforeseeable circumstances, every industry has its own style and name for the traditional approach and the actual steps and stages are almost common to all: problem solving.
Secondly, there is the Critical Chain Project Management. This style of project management puts more emphasis on the resources that are available and necessary for the completion of the task ahead. It normally considers the limitations of the resources and the constraints that are bound to affect the project itself. It aim at increasing the rate at which the projects in a particular organization are completed. This approach targets tasks on the critical chain from the system’ constraints, identifies the resources and gives priority to these tasks, ultimately subordination all other resources to this chain.
Third is the Extreme Project Management which gives more focus on the multi-project systems of current times. The aim of this approach is to minimize or cut out unnecessary costs and increase maneuverability in cases where this is a problem. It identifies models that are considered not to be heavy duty and increase human interaction management.
Finally, there is the Event Chain Methodology. This is a method that complements the critical chain project management approach. It focuses more on identifying events and tasks that ultimately affect the project as a whole. It tries to reduce the biasness that often arises from constraints of resources, mitigate the negative impacts that this causes and allow for an easier plan that tries to consider the uncertainties that the project may be afflicted by.
This approach is based on certain principles that facilitate its operations. The probabilistic moment of risk which operates on the theory that every task in a project is affected by external events which may occur at any point when the task is still in progress.
The event chains which operates on the fact that events can cause other events and end up creating an event chain which needless to say will ultimately affect the course and timing of the project. An analysis must therefore be carried out to determine and find out the cumulative effect of these events in order to complete any given project within the determined schedule.
Critical events are what are considered to have the most potential and capacity to affect the whole project or course a chain of events that will affect it. It may be a single event or a chain of events. They too must be analyzed.
Even when a project is complete and the information about it as to the time it has taken, the costs that have been incurred and the events that occurred, it is still possible to refine the data about the capacity of future potential events and forecast performance (Ireland, 2006)
There is also a structured approach to project management which is mostly generic called the PRINCE 2. it gives a clear and defined framework that describes procedures to coordinate activities and performance in a given project. It also provides on how to design and supervise such a project and what could be done in the eventuality that it does not unfold as had been planned.
In this method , every single process is identified with what it brings to the project and its products therefore allowing for an automatic control of the system that controls deviations from the initial plan. These are then divided into manageable stages to maximize the utilization of the resources that are available for the whole project. As such the project continues on and is eventually completed in a controlled and very organized manner.
References
Ireland, L. R. (2006). Project Management. McGraw-Hill Professional.
Nokes, S. (2007). The Definitive Guide to Project Management. 2nd Ed. London Financial Times / Prentice Hall.
