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Advantages and disadvantages of project management
The role of project management in achieving project success
The role of project management in achieving project success
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Recommended: Advantages and disadvantages of project management
Implementation Plan Concepts Worksheet
There is clearly no project management structure at Harrison-Keyes. The project is plagued with inefficiencies and problems. Budgets are overrun, deadlines are going unmet, authors are dissatisfied, there is no clear anti-piracy strategy in place, e-commerce hardware and software are not ready to meet demand, and bad publicity threatens to derail the entire project.
Many businesses struggle with creating processes that allow them to organize projects while continuing to carry on day-to-day operations (Gray & Lawson, 2005). Harrison-Keyes is no exception, as its e-publishing initiative is being carried out while the company continues to try stay afloat with its struggling printed books. People, time, and monetary resources are currently being shared by both the project and normal busing operations with no clear project structure guidelines.
Project management structures represent the major approaches to organizing projects (Gray & Lawson, 2005). "A good system appropriately balances the needs of both the parent organization and the project by defining the interface between the project and parent organization in terms of authority, allocation of resources, and eventual integration of project outcomes into mainstream operations" (Gray & Lawson, 2005, p. 55).
Work breakdown structure
"A good work breakdown structure (WBS) is part of the foundation of a good project" (Rose, 2006, p. 114). This is a structured approach for organizing the necessary information for successful planning, scheduling, and controlling of a project (Gray & Lawson, 2005). Harrison-Keyes has demonstrated what the anticipated project outcome itself will be, while fundamentally omitting the necessary end results of each interim step of the project.
Work breakdown structures provide a framework for specifying objectives and ensure that the plan matches the scope of the project (Rose, 2006). By thinking of the project in its overall scope instead of breaking each component into a work structure, HK leadership has to resolve many project challenges all at once.
Work breakdown structures are "a disciplined, structured method for selectively collecting information to use through all phases of the project life cycle, to meet the needs of all stakeholders and to measure performance against the strategic plan of the organization" (Gray & Lawson, 2005, p. 99).
Organization politics
"Organizational politics can be defined as actions by individuals or groups of individuals to acquire, develop, and use power and other resources in order to obtain preferred outcomes when there is uncertainty or disagreement over choices" (University of Phoenix, 2007, para. 2). Meg P. McGill, CEO used her political influences to convince the HK Board and company leadership that digit publishing was an important strategy to pursue at this time.
Geraldi, J., Maylor, H., & Williams, T. (2011). Now, let's make it really complex (complicated): A systematic review of the complexities of projects. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 31(9), 966-990.
Whenever work breakdown structure come play, it basically saying or telling how work is broken down into smaller units such that whatever that has been put under a particular unit can be understood by the team members.
The Shewhart Cycle is a process by which a leader can gain and maintain control of essential aspects of a project as it progresses from conception through completion. Developed by Dr. Walter Shewhart, the process consists of four distinct steps. Though it has a beginning, the process continues to loop and repeat itself until the end of the project. There are four steps in the process. They are plan, do, check, and act. During planning, the leader determines the requirements for success as well as the obstacles which may be encountered along the way. All essential information is gathered and organized into tasks and timelines. The “Do” step is where action is taken on the tasks identified earlier. Special monitoring during this step will ensure that the tasks are understood, properly resourced, and accomplished. Through checking, the leader can ensure that performance is meeting standards and that adjustments can be made as appropriate. Act, or execute in accordance to the plan. If it is a good plan and carefully monitored, the project should go smoothly. (Clark, 2014).
Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Co., Inc. Kim, B. &. (2011).
Implementing an evidenced based practice (EBP) plan can be the most difficult aspect in the process of ensuring a behavior is changed. The leader must take all measures necessary to guarantee the process is followed and the plan is a success. These steps needed are to ensure the correct team is in place; they are filled with a sense of urgency and have the needed incentives as well as are knowledgeable on how the plan will be carried out (Ahrens, 2005). The writer will outline the process for implementing the EBP of ensuring a dysphagia screen protocol and needed processes are in place at a hospital.
Gray, C., Larson, E. (2008). Project Management: The managerial Process. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
... work for each cli¬ent. Our se¬nior ex¬ecutives and Project Directors frequently confer to make near- and longer-term fore¬casts of workload and share information about known or projected new Task Orders. The firm’s sophisti¬cated project tracking system ensures that we staff each project effectively.
Wideman, M., (1993). Project Management Case Study The Custom Woodworking Company - Woody 2000 Project. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/woody2000/intro.htm. [Last Accessed 24 April 2014].
Information systems (IS) projects are vulnerable to resource cutbacks and the increasing complexity of systems and advances in information technology make finding the right personnel difficult and the associated development costs high. Good project management is essential for success. Some alignment methodologies include IBM's business systems planning (BSP), Robert Holland's strategic systems planning, James Martin's (1989) information engineering and method/1 from Anderson Consulting.
The vendors will outline how the work will be accomplished, who will perform the work, and vendors experience in providing the service. Additionally, the vendors will be required to submit work breakdown structures (WBSs) as the hierarchy structure below and work schedules to show their understanding of the work to be performed and their ability to meet the project schedule. There are constraints to be included in the RFP and communicated to all vendors in order to determine their ability to operate within these constraints. The project schedule is not flexible and the contractor must complete the service within the established project schedule of 1 year. The contractor must support the approved project scope statement.
Time-phased project work is the basis for project cost control. Work package duration is used to develop the project network. Further, the time-phased budgets for work packages are timetabled to establish fiscal measures for each phase throughout the project. The time-phased budgets are to emulate the real cash needs of the budget, which will be used for project cost control. This information is useful to estimate cash outflows. The project manager's attention is on when the costs are to occur, when the budgeted cost is earned, and when the actual cost materializes. This information is made up to measure project schedule and cost variances (Gray & Larson, 2005). The following are typical types of costs found in a project:
The book (12th edition) defines organizational politics as the use of power to affect decision making in an organization, or on self-serving and organizationally unsanctioned behaviors. We are humans and can interpret facts differently from the person sitting next to us. Therefore, we will use politics to influence the decision to support our interpretation and interests. I also do not believe that an organization will have enough resources to satisfy the goals of all groups within an organization. Therefore, managers will always have to use politics to obtain the resources necessary to achieve their goals. There will always be a need for some level of persuasion through the use power bases and power tactics within any organization now or in the near
My interest in the field of information management was triggered when I began developing small projects. As a group, we designed and developed a few mid-term projects in third year of engineering – a banking system portal, a website for my college, and a training and placement office software. I was the lead in developing a hotel management system, which was awarded the “Best Project” prize at the intra college project competition. These projects made
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
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.