Introduction
Project implementation is the process through which one puts a project into effect. It involves utilization of resources, materials, and techniques to achieve certain pre determined goals. Successful implementation of projects requires a carefully formulated plan which is often unique for each project.
Through the implementation plan, an organization is able to clearly outline the processes required to successfully accomplish a specified task. The implementation plan should incorporate a periodic review that ensures that all operations are carried out in accordance to the implementation plan.
Project administration refers to all activities which are involved in management of all the resources required to implement projects. Project administration facilitates among other things, efficient supply chain management and adherence to the implementation plan which promotes successful execution projects.
Responsibility for Retention Efforts
Retention efforts are aimed at maintaining skillful and talented employees until successful completion of the project. In most situations, it is almost impossible to ensure retention of employees which calls for organizations to implement measures that are geared towards maintaining its pool of labor adapt failure to which may interfere with the outcome of the project.
Some of the most common strategies employed by management to ensure retention of skilled workers involve provision of handsome wages, titles and recognition, as well as work promotions.
The project manager in Berkeley College strategic plan 2010-2015 should assume the role of ensuring that employee compensation is constantly reviewed and revised depending on the worker’s output in the project. They should further motivate the staff members and award exceptional performers.
The strategic plan supervisory committee should evaluate performance of each stakeholder throughout the project in order to analyze their performance. Poor performers should be fired through consensus by board members while good performers should be motivated through financial incentives in order to ensure retention of efficient human resource component.
Staffing Needs
Gathering the work force and correct staffing is an important aspect in implementation of projects. It is very important for project manager to assemble the required skills and expertise necessary for effective execution of the project.
The roles of the staff members should be clearly outlined and each position should be adequately described from the onset of implementation process. However, it should be noted that in some incidences, the roles and responsibilities of staff members may change which requires staff members to be flexible to such unprecedented changes.
Successful implementation plans need to be formulated under the oversight of skilled and experienced project management. Dario Corte has ensured the coordination of the Berkeley college strategic plan through the assistance of the strategic planning committee, the sub committees, board of trustees, senior administration, the Berkley college community and other task forces (Cortes 2).
The college strategic planning committee is charged with the responsibility of monitoring the strategic planning process and is comprised of the chairman of the board of trustees, two deans, an alumni representative, and five staff representatives among other members. These members are expected to promote and advocate for the implementation of the college’s strategic plan to both internal and external stakeholders.
Budget Needs
Due to the uncertainties surrounding project implementation, the cost of the projects is often estimated at the onset of the project through identification and valuation of various constituents and resources necessary to meet the project’s objectives (Rad 1). When the project is conceived, the estimated cost is extremely in accurate due to limited availability of information and dynamism in the project environment.
However, as the project evolves, more information becomes unveiled and the estimates can be fine tuned to higher levels of precision. Implementation of the Berkeley strategic plan 2010-2015 requires huge amounts of financial resources to facilitate the implementation of the laid down objectives.
The established 2009-2020 capital plan therefore provides a substantial amount of investment to cater for the financial resources required to achieve the college’s long term goals.
The Project Plan
A project plan sets forth the ideas on how one seeks to achieve pre determined set of objectives (Gido 7). A project plan begins with the definition of objectives which is followed by a list of all the necessary actions that are required to accomplish these objectives. This may be enhanced by a graphical representation of the logical precedence relationships among the activities necessary to accomplish the project’s objectives.
Berkley College strategic plan 2010-2015 aims at developing, supporting, and delivering an academic curricula, programs and services that are designed to prepare students for both professional and personal success (Cortes).
In order to achieve these objectives, the project administrators have to engage in extensive recruitment and retention of faculties and staff members who meet the future global academic requirements, promote growth and steer positive change within the organization, adoption of green initiatives, and promotion of corporate responsibility in the institution.
Communication Plan
Communication plan requires the project manager to identify all the relevant project stakeholders in order to assess the most suitable and effective means of communicating with such stakeholders.
The decision may be based on past project performance results and should be agreed upon by both project managers and team members. The communication plan is therefore an extensive means through which project information is communicated to all the relevant stakeholders (Dow & Taylor 68).
In the case of Berkley college strategic plan communication process, project managers may choose to use email to communicate the project information to relevant stakeholders.
Communication via email is not a new concept and has been around for a considerable period of time especially with the wake of the new information age. Indeed, email has become a number one choice of communication among students, professors, and corporate figures.
However, the project managers should be cautious when communicating project information via email. Managers should be able to identify the appropriate messages that should be sent through such means. For instance, if a project manager sent out an email outlining that the cost of project had exceeded the proposed budget by $ 1 million dollars, this would result to negative reactions among the stakeholders.
However, if the project managers gathered the stakeholders and informed them of the budget deficit clearly explaining the core reasons underlying the cost increment and later sent out the backup email summarizing all the details, this would amount to effective transmission of information via the email.
Generating Stakeholder Buy In
In order to generate stakeholder buy in, the project management has to ensure effective stakeholder management in order to assess impact of their behavior on project outcome. The project staff members should be committed to the fulfillment of stakeholders’ requirement in the project and should be assigned to various tasks that directly handle stakeholder needs.
To ensure maximum output, the project managers may formulate a stakeholder management plan where all the concerned project stakeholders are identified and clearly outlined and their influence on the project are assessed.
The formulated stakeholder management plan comes in handy as the project progresses since it can be used as a live document to identify changes in the stakeholder behavior and assess the subsequent impact on the project (Melton 68).
Anticipated Resistance
Strategic plan implementation is characterized by institutional change which is likely to face resistance from staff members, students, and other college stakeholders.
Resistant to change remains to this date one of the most complex and multi faceted phenomena that continues to affect the outcome of change driven projects both negatively and positively.
Implementation of the strategic plan 2010-2015 in Berkeley may result in resistance by the teaching staff who may disagree with adoption of a new curriculum while the student may fail to accept new programs and services availed under the strategic plan resulting in project failure.
Conclusion
In order to achieve the Berkley college strategic plan 2010-2015, extensive implementation planning is necessary. The implementation plan serves the purpose of providing orientation towards achievement of the college’s long term goals. However, this will only be possible through identification of goals and necessary actions to achieve these goals.
In addition, extensive planning and coordination through out the implementation process is necessary. This will be further enhanced by the management’s constant updates of goals and actions which ensures continued adherence to the plan. The college’s strategic plan therefore serves to strike a balance between guidelines of the institutional goals and the strategic directions that will drive the college towards attainment of its future goal.
Works Cited
Cortes, Dario. “Berkeley College: 2010-2015”, volume 1 number 7, 2009. Mar 9, 2011.
Dow, William., & Taylor, Bruce. Project Management Communications Bible. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print.
Gido, Jack. An Introduction to Project Planning. New York: Industrial Press Inc, 1985. Print.
Melton, Trish. Project Management Toolkit: The Basics for Project Success, Volume 1. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2007. Print.
Rad, Parviz. Project Estimating and Cost Management. Vienna: Management concepts Inc, 2002. Print.