Another important terminology is Project Management, as far back in the mid-1960s, the enhanced provision of infrastructure in the aftereffects of colonization saw the emergence of the practice of project management in Ghana. There is some evidence that after initially taking up project management as a tool for the delivery of developmental initiatives, there was a shift towards developing and implementing several interventions using various approaches, particularly those skewed towards vertical programming.
However, as in International Journal of Business and Management (www.ccsenet.org/ijbm, Vol. 8, No. 21; 2013 17) written that Ghana’s development became driven by donor-funded interventions (Ofori & Sakyi, 2006). The public sector and the
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Project Management Critical Success Factors defining project success poses another challenge in understanding project management and accordingly assessing its performance. It is generally accepted however, that the success of a project can be well-defined through the convergence of, the ability of the process to meet the technical goals of the project while not deviating from the three constraints of scope, time and cost; the usefulness of the project as perceived by project team, sponsors and beneficiaries; and the performance of the project (Kerzner, 1992, 2001, 2003). Hence, project success or failure can only be effectively measured at the completion of the …show more content…
These include: Project Mission – the initial clarity of the goals and general direction; Project Schedule/Plans – a detailed specification of specific individual action steps required for project implementation; Top Management Support – the willingness of top management to provide the essential resources and authority for project success; Client Consultation – communication, consultation, and active listening to all impacted parties; as well as Personnel – recruitment, selection, and training of the essential personnel for the project team; Technical Tasks – availability of the required technical Expertise
Graham, R. J. & Randall, L., Creating an Environment for Successful Projects: The Quests to Manage Project Management, second ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 65-113, 2003.
Project managers must possess the ability to use sound judgment based on the facts available to them, past experiences, and knowledge of current events to make effective decisions. Often, the success of project managers is based upon the outcomes of the decisions they did or did not make. As such, conducting performance assessments, during project implementation and after project completion, enables project managers and project stakeholders to accurately evaluate the success of the project. Projects are innately complex and multifaceted; therefore, project successes are difficult to measure and ascertain. “Based on an extensive review of the project success literature … a clear definition of project success does not exist and there is a need to develop meaningful and measurable constructs of project success” (Mir & Pinnington, 2014, p. 203).
The projects in today’s world are given a lot of importance and it will continue to grow in the coming years. There are a lot of companies which do not have production, but all of them do have projects. There are a lot of books which have been published on which related to planning and managing the projects. The one of the most important one was published by the author Eli Goldratt in his book ‘Critical chain’. This book basically talks and shows how the application of theory of constraints in the field of project management. The novel is basically based on one of the MBA classes in America where a number of ideas are developed in discussions among the students and the lecturers. The lecturer is basically fighting for a tenure with the president of the university who expects a downturn in the executive MBA. The lecturer who teaches project management has a word with one the senior colleagues and project management was the right topic to teach. There were three students who were placed in the project management team of their company which manufactures electronic products. The students are enrolled in this MBA class along with other students, here they discover a new approach to project management which is known as the
One way to provide clear description of a project is to prepare project charter. A Guide to the Project Management Body Of Knowledge (2008), “it is the process of developing a document that formally authorizes a project or a phase and initial requirements that satisfy the stake holder needs expectations” (pg.71). Preparing a project charter is the initial step for project manager to start any project. In Project charter we can describe different components of the projects. To start any project, preparing a project charter is the initial steps for project manager. Some of the essential components are described below.
There are many similarities and differences between domestic and global project management. A project manager must realize that what might work in their country may not work in a foreign environment. Project managers might find themselves using practices that have worked for them in the past, without even thinking of the new environment, and issues may arise. Project managers need to understand the differences in a different country's environment to avoid and reduce any obstacles that there may be. Some considerations global project managers must consider are the legal, political, security, geographical, economic infrastructure, and culture implications of working with different countries (Gray, 2006).
Project Management Institute (PMI) (2013). Project Management Professional (PMP) Handbook. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pmi.org/certification/~/media/pdf/certifications/pdc_pmphandbook.ashx. [Last Accessed 20 April 2014].
Project management is said to be completed within time when it completed within the “triple constraints”: cost, time and quality. And in a lot of causes, one them is sacrificed so as to meet the other two. Project managers prioritize which ones are the most important.
The topic of my group (group 4) was “How to totally float through your project for free” and the presentation was held by Roger Goodman who works for PMI NZ and Ernst & Young supply chain management with many years of working experience in many different countries such as Saudi Arabia and China.
This ranges from the provision of services such as event planning to the production of goods in the manufacturing, real estate development and the extractive industries. Until recently, project management was not taught in schools in Ghana. Rather, technocrats who were thrust into managing projects had to learn from their experiences or through working with project management professionals. With the growing shift towards projects, project management is now being taught in universities as well as by several institutions. The proliferation of announcements of “PMP” i.e. Project Management Professional courses in newspapers, suggests that a demand has been created. This augurs well for ensuring that projects are managed by professionals. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence to show that the acquisition of technical knowledge and project management skills by non-professionals who may be in the very senior management positions have been created as a direct result of the proliferation of institutions offering Project Management
... and user involvement. It divides the project into pre-project, project lifecycle and post-project phases.
Project management involves all activities that encompass scheduling, planning, and controlling projects. A successful project manager ensure that an organization’s resources are being used both efficiently and effectively. Most projects need to be uniquely developed require a sense of customization and the ability to adapt to any posed challenges. The scope of effective project management includes defining what the project is and what is being expected to be accomplished. Projects are imposed to fulfill a certain need and project managers must have the ability to create the proper definition. Goals and the means used to attain those goals have to be clearly stated. Project Managers must also have the ability to plan
Simple or complex, large or small, projects fail due by multiple influencing factors and the reasons could be many. Since every project is distinctive, has a definite start end dates, limited budget and involves multiple stakeholders it is tough to avoid failure unless right resources, methodologies and processes are in place. Key factors that could lead to a project failure are unachievable Requirements, unrealistic timelines, unskilled resources, poor communication, Unreliable Estimates, poor quality, poor Governance and inadequate Risk Management. To avoid project failure it is very important that these influence factors are handled appropriately with constructive planning and monitoring. The project managers have a significant responsibility towards the failure or success of a project as they are the reins who drive, plan and monitor the progress of the engagement.
The project success can be considered as the accomplishment of a specific mix of desired goals and subjective measures listed out in the success criteria and evaluated at the end of the project. Achieving the company’s objectives has led to the quest for the success in projects that in turn prompted to formulate the factors that can lead to the success of the project. (Terry Cooke-Davies, 2002) ascertained that the factors are the inputs of a system that can lead to the success and the criteria as a measure of the tasks that must be carried out to determine the project success or failure, which in turn make the project acceptable to the client. In other words, the criterion sets the standards to test the project while the factors lead to the
When planning a new project, how the project will be managed is one of the most important factors. The importance of a managers will determine the success of the project. The success of the project will be determined by how well it is managed. Project management is referred to as the discipline that entails the processes of carefully planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating the organization resources so as to foster and facilitate the achievement of specific established and desired goals and meet the specific criteria of success required in the organization (Larson, 2014). Over the course of this paper I will be discussing and analyzing the importance of project management.
Westerveld, E., The Project Excellence Model®: linking success criteria and critical success factors, International Journal of Project Management, Volume 21, Issue 6, August 2003, Pages 411-418. Science Direct [Accessed 10th February 2014]