Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Part 1: Introduction
or other, which needs good knowledge on project management and this is the
most of the business schools around the world. The unique nature of projects,
life cycle, work breakdown structure, network analysis and crashing, forms the core
content of this chapter. Projects play a vital role in sustaining business activity.
Network analysis and finding the critical path is inevitable for any project.
Finding the path variance and the probability of completion of the project in a given
above, crashing the project to complete the same in lesser time using
context. There are various terms and definitions related to project management
In managing operations, we are often faced with activities that do not fit into the
usual day-to-day operations of the firm. These non-typical, unusual activities of the
firm are called projects. Therefore typical daily, weekly or monthly activities of a firm
involving scheduling, quality control, purchasing, etc. are not categorized as projects.
Due to their unique nature, projects require different management approaches and
techniques. A list of project examples are: installation of a new bar coding system,
Controlled) machinery, conversion of the plant layout from process layout to group
planning organizing and managing major sports events such as Olympics, sports
controlling and directing the unusual activities facing the firm. In managing projects,
temporary project teams are formed to schedule the work, to adhere to a given
budget, and to monitor the progress of the work through its various stages. For larger
projects, project teams are formed. These project teams may include workers from
the company involved in the project as well as other external companies (i.e.
consulting firm). Depending on the size and type of the project, an internal project
leader and possibly project team members may receive full or partial release from
their regular duties. The duty release is given because it would be very difficult for an
managing a project, the project team is usually responsible for managing and
controlling the following four factors: the length of project completion time, resources,
quality and cost. The project plan is generally prepared well before actual project
work begins. The first phase of the project needs to include a clear statement of
goals and objectives of the project. The next phase involves composing a detailed
definition of the project. Then, using the Work Breakdown Structure, the project is
decomposed into tasks or activities. Once all of the unique tasks making up the
By: Gerline Mae Ocampo Pableo
project are identified, specific time, cost and resource estimates are obtained for
each task. In planning and controlling the project, the project team’s major duty is to
ensure timely progression of the project through various stages without exceeding
the approved cost standards while achieving the desired level of quality. The project
team usually prepares progress reports during different stages of the project for
upper management and possibly for external sources playing a major role in the
project. The interim project progress report assists in ensuring that the project team’s
actions are consistent with the original goals and objectives of the project and the
project is continuing according to plan. If the project is delayed or major changes had
to be made, the interim progress report also allows the project manager to explain
the reasons for deviations from the original plan. In addition, the interim progress
report also gives upper management a chance to consider and possibly approve the
a certain set of skills. For projects that involve fairly well-defined work, the project
manager must be able to, motivate his or her team, direct team members in specific
work areas of the project, solve specific project related problems, resolve issues and
management, expedite work when necessary, coordinate work among the team
members and among the appropriate outside contractors and make the necessary
project trade-off decisions involving cost, time, quality and resources. However, if the
work is not well defined, there is usually more uncertainty involved. In projects
functions listed above, the project leader must also demonstrate strong leadership
skills. The more ill-defined the work, the higher the need for leadership skills.
Leadership skills are less tangible than the skills mentioned and may include the
By: Gerline Mae Ocampo Pableo
following: ability to deal with change, deciding what type of changes are needed and
when to make the change or changes, working with the project team to make the
background and skills who may also be reporting to other managers in their
respective functional areas and ability to persuade and cooperate with others to fulfill
project goals since the project manager may not have the formal authority to
accomplish some of the goals of the project. Project champion is the person who is
from within the company specifically designated to support the project. The project
promoting the project to other managers who might be asked to share resources with
the project team. The project champion also promotes the benefits of the project to
employees who may be asked to work on portions of the project. Since the project
champion plays a very important role in facilitating the project, both the project
manager and the project team needs to keep him or her informed and involved about
the status of the project. Possible benefits of the project need to be communicated to
the project champion so that he or she is knowledgeable about the project to be able
identification of risks, assessment and evaluation of risks and risk reduction (includes
contingency plans, risk sharing, backup systems, risk transfer and early identification
automatically formats reports, it can generate multiple levels of summary reports and
detailed reports, it enables what-if scenarios and what-if analysis, it can generate
various chart types, including basic Gantt charts. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
is a hierarchical listing of what must be done during the project. It breaks down the
entire project into manageable smaller portions called activities or tasks. WBS is
activities of the project. The primary advantages of PERT are: the PERT chart helps
managers to visualize the project, planners must identify major activities and define
nonexisting information (e.g., time estimates) tend to be more easily recognized with
important activities may be overlooked when developing the project network, errors
large networks require the use of a computer which might not be available. Near-
critical paths can have distributions which overlap the distribution of critical path time,
which may result in a lower probability of timely completion than that based solely on
the time distribution of the critical path. Where overlap is not a factor, probabilistic
estimates based solely on the critical path are acceptable. Expected activity time is a
weighted average of optimistic, most-likely, and pessimistic time for each activity.
computed by summing the variances of activities which comprise the path and then
taking the square root of that sum. The critical path generates more attention than
By: Gerline Mae Ocampo Pableo
other paths. Hence, those associated with activities which are on the critical path are
often in the spotlight. If they perform well, there is a good possibility for recognition
with the critical path activities, and some would just as soon avoid that pressure.
Projects can offer a change of pace, a chance to do new work, meet new people and
new challenges. If the project is successful, certain rewards, recognition and perhaps
may be difficult to return to one’s former slot in the organization. And, if one is
involved with the project on a part-time basis, conflicts may arise between the
regular work and project work. Authority may not be commensurate with
responsibility, time and funding pressures may be large, the environment is often
more dynamic than with more routine jobs, there may be a much wider range of skills
among subordinates, and conflicts may arise between project workers and those not
involved with the project (e.g., other projects, nonproject work). The project
Part 3: Recommendations
Project management is very important for the organization to govern the project. A
team leader needs to understand project lifecycle, risk and risk management in order
to create the strategy for the project to be successful. Moreover, applying the proper
tool during the process duration estimation by considering the iron triangle can lead
to reach the goal of the project. However, team project need to keep in mind that
when the project seems to not achieve the goal, they need to know when to stop it
before they are going to spend beyond the budget. Risk occurs when the
By: Gerline Mae Ocampo Pableo
The project manager or team project needs to find the dimension that causes the
risk. Risk management is usually defined as a set of principles and practices aimed
achieving a successful project outcome and/or avoid project failure. Risk and risk
business objectives can be critically dependent upon their success. Four common
project. This may involve, for example, changing the project design so that the
circumstance under which a particular risk event might occur cannot arise, or so that
the event will have little impact on the project if it does. For example, planned
for a risk to a third party. This action does not eliminate the threat to the project; it
just passes the responsibility for its management to someone else. Theoretically, this
implies a principal–agent relationship wherein the agent is better able to manage the
risk, resulting in a better overall outcome for the project. This can be a high risk
strategy because the threat to the project remains, which the principal must
ultimately bear, but direct control is surrendered to the agent. Common risk transfer
a risk premium of some kind is paid to the agent for taking ownership of the risk. The
agent must then develop its own response strategy for the risk. Risk mitigation is one
By: Gerline Mae Ocampo Pableo
likelihood and/or potential impact before the risk is realized. Ultimately, the aim is to
manage the project in such a manner that the risk event does not occur or, if it does,
the impact can be contained to a low level (that is, to ‘manage the threat to zero’).
For example, using independent testers and test scripts to verify and validate
project may reduce the likelihood of defects being found post-delivery and minimize
project delays due to software quality problems. Risk acceptance can include a
range of passive and active response strategies. One is to passively accept that the
risk exists but choose to do nothing about it other than, perhaps, to monitor its
status. This may be an appropriate response when the threat is low and the source
of the risk is external to the project’s control. Alternatively, the threat may be real but
there is little that can be done about it until it materializes. In this case, contingencies
can be established to handle the condition when and if it occurs. The contingency
detailed action plan (contingency plan) that can be quickly enacted when the
this strategy to ensure that contingency plans work as expected when required.
Part 4: Conclusions
Project management is the primary tool for executing the business plan, installing the
Project management helps to detail what tasks will be accomplished, who will be
involved in completing the tasks, and when tasks should start and finish. Typically,
rapid, interactive project management are also widely used. Several tools can be
By: Gerline Mae Ocampo Pableo
used to manage the project and communicate timing and status, including task
diaries, WBSs, and Gantt charts. Projects fail for many reasons. It is management’s
responsibility to determine whether the inherent risks in the project can be accepted
and the project can be launched, or whether the project will be delayed. Project
management is not a panacea, but rather a critical tool in the never-ending process
of growth and renewal of the business. It allows the managers to minimize and
mitigate inherent risks and increase the potential for success of the launch and the
ongoing operations.