Title of Paper: Written Assignment Week 1

Student Name (Anonymous for Written Assignments)

BUS 5611: Managing Projects and Programs

James Simmons (Instructor)

Date 7/9/2022
What is project management, and why it's important?

According to Martinelli & Milosevic (2016) the term project is used to describe something that is

not part of daily routine activities. A project indicates something purposeful and distinct. For

instance, projects at the workplace can be of many different types, such as organizing a special

event, making a big purchase, or moving an office. Or obviously, a project can be larger than

previous ones. For instance, projects can involve developing new services or a new function or

moving a service area to a new location. (Martin, 2006)

Projects are crucial because projects are important enough in the eyes of senior management to

justify setting up organizational units outside the structure of the organization. The

characteristics of lack of importance are numerous and subtle; no mention of it by top

management assigning the project to someone of low stature or rank. Manager’s adding the

project to the responsibilities of someone who is already overworked, failing to check its

progress, failing to see its resource needs, and so on. (Martin, 2006)

Cost-effectiveness

In project management, cost-effectiveness allows managers to compare the different costs

involved in each optional way of achieving the same objectives or outcomes. Any option that

costs the least would normally be considered the most cost-effective. This approach is only

helpful if the result has been described thoroughly. For instance, if it is intended to achieve staff

development during the process, the project would not be more cost-effective to hire temporary

staff. This option would not have been considered if staff development had been identified as an

objective of the project. (Project Management Institute, 2016)

Improve efficiency

Increasing project efficiency depends on different factors such as; keeping in mind the big

picture and purpose of the project; carefully planning and organizing project works so that the

manager has accounted for every possible factor and resource. Also, communication between

managers and stakeholders is significant when projects are large, under more scrutiny, or having

frequent difficulties. On the other hand, prioritizing tasks among the team members is essential;

increasing efficiency and productivity helps to find out where team members have any confusion

about their work. (Martinelli & Milosevic, 2016)

Knowing more about project stakeholders and satisfying them

According to the Project Management Institute (2016), project stakeholders are individuals,

groups, or organizations who may affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by

a decision, activity, or outcome. Stakeholders consist of persons and organizations such as

customers, sponsors, the performing organization, and the public who are actively involved or

whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the execution or completion of the

project. Stakeholders may also exert influence over the project and its deliverables.

So, it is crucial to achieving widespread internal stakeholder satisfaction. So, managers must

consider the risk management aspects of a project, with the immediate objective of balancing

schedule, cost, resource, and work scope, and an end objective of maximizing stakeholder

satisfaction and project success.

Reference

Martin, V. (2006). MANAGING PROJECTS IN HUMAN RESOURCES, TRAINING AND

DEVELOPMENT (1st ed.). Kogan Page Limited.

Martinelli , R. J., & Milosevic, D. Z. (2016). PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLBOX (2nd ed.).

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Project Management Institute. (2016). Project management institute: A guide to the project

management body of knowledge (5th ed.). Project Management Institute, Inc.