Introduction
Coca Cola was invented by John Pemberton in Atlanta. He concocted the Coca Cola formula in a three legged kettle. Coca Cola was a name suggested by Frank Robinson Pemberton’s. Robinson had excellent penmanship and he is the one who scripted Coca Cola in flowing letters which are popular to date.
Since then, Coca Cola Company has undergone various transformations and opened many franchises all over the world. One of such subsidiaries is Coca Cola Bottling Co. Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM), 2007 was therefore adopted for this reason. Also, the company adopted, for this purpose, software named Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007. CCBCC chose Projects Solutions Group to offer project management and training services in implementing this project. The following is how Project Solutions Group approached and implemented the project but first; the paper looks at the principles of PM. The management of a project requires to be attended by competent professionals.
Managing a project
Projects have very many issues to handle. Thus, it requires competitive leaders so as to deliver the promises. The quality of an IT project is very important, because it determines the effectiveness of serving customers. In addition, it is important that the project be completed within the specified time. One of the most important aspects in a project is to save on the costs. IT is a very complicated field with many solutions for the various projects. It requires managers and leaders to be competitive and experienced. Projects as undertakings seeking to deliver value added advantages to organizations must be well thought, evaluated, examined and agreed upon and become certified through business case. There many competing alternatives all in every organization all striving for consideration, endorsement and sponsorship by the management and stakeholders of the said organization. Discovery process (from where the project starts) ensures that only important alternative/opportunities are pursued in some sort of portfolio planning where a potential project is matched with organization’s resources mainly budget and time (constraints).
Principles of Project Management as applied by Project Solution Group
Utilities Coordination Work Plan can help project planning (Sweeney, 2010). It is assumed as per the First Principles of project management that the team is aware of the customer and that certain skill levels are required (Wideman, 2010). It has also been indicated that experience is important in learning these principles (Chapman, 2001).
The commitment principle
Providers of resources – money, supplies etc- represent sponsor/owners of the project. Project delivery team consists of experts with required skills, experience, strategies, plans, controls and knowledge to convert these resources into project deliverables/product.
The success Principle
Without specifying success criteria, at completion, it would be hard to determine ultimate success. Indicators of project success must be reinforced and verified throughout the project lifecycle.
The Tetrad trade-off principle
Four variables are involved in this principle, and these are project scope, quality grade, time-to-produce and cost-at-completion which determine internal project management efficiency (Wideman, 2010).
The Strategy principle
Projects are pro tem commitment meant to achieve a goal. As such, projects have life span from Start/conception, Plan/learn, Do/work and Finish/die. Unless otherwise, every project must progress through that cycle till it is completed. This is only the feature that distinguishes a project from other undertakings.
The management principle
As an extension of commitment principle, it determines what is done and when by establishing how it is done and by whom.
The single-Point Responsibility principle
There is a need for maintaining contact between the project leaders and the team for delivering the goals of the project. This tenet is centered on maintaining commitment on both parties of a project. There should be only one spokesperson representing the whole group owning the project and so should be on the other side i.e. project delivery team must have one representative in matters of communication with sponsors. However, free and unrestrained communication must exist and be encouraged within the project team.
Cultural environment principle
Any obstacles relating to cultural issues must be eliminated or minimized.
Success/Failure Criteria
Success or failure mean different thing to different associates of a project. Completion of a project on time and within budget specification is an achievement to the project team but if the product does not satisfy the customer, it is a failure. The opposite is true. Project group Solutions (PGS) applies Square Route success criteria in determining the achievement of a project. Here, success is view from two perspectives; organizational where a project is accomplished within initial time and cost predictions plus other strategic goals achievable through the project and shareholders’ view – satisfaction of the projects sponsors by the project deliverables. End-user satisfaction means a lot in the evaluation of the project.
Project Management procedures
On one hand, project management procedures explain how project will be managed in addition to being effective communication tools among the project team, customers and stakeholders. They are usually customized to fit the needs of projects, the team and organization. They specify what must be done, by whom and when citing particular roles, persons and dates often in a description manner. For instance, the project manager, Steve Wheeler, will sign Progress Report by Thursday at 4:00 pm ever week. On the other hand, processes are a higher level compared to procedures. They do not specify every detail e.g. the project manager will sign Progress every week. Procedures are diverse representing everything that needs to be done in a project. In PGS, procedures are guiding principles. For example, there is the issue of management procedures, work plan review and update procedures, scope management procedures, risk management procedures among others.
Terminating project and post project appraisal
According to CCBCC and PGS, every project must come to an orderly closure. Both the client/CCBCC and the supplier/PGS should be in harmony that the project delivered initial expectations as specified from the onset. All participants in the project are informed of the closure and project records are filed and retained for future project audits and documentation requirements. In addition, project issues are closed and transferred to Follow-on-Actions, the project product is approved and handed over to the customer, it is ascertained that the project meets customer specifications and that the operational and maintenance environment is in place where applicable. The project manager prepares Project Closure Notification to notify all associates of the project that the project is to be closed and resources disbanded. If the product has to be supported and sustained during its life, customers must acknowledge they that they received it in an applicable state. When a project is closed properly, confidence and morale of the project team is boosted and performance on future project can easily improve and customer satisfaction is achieved. In some cases, the project board may authorize untimely closure due to failure of the project to achieve its objective.
In PGS, post project appraisal represents a post mortem investigation at the end of a project to learn what worked well or otherwise. It is a learning process that helps project team avoid failing strategies by learning what worked well and transferring it to future projects. Post project appraisal also helps the project team and client understand the project in-depth. It is advisable that this exercise be done by a neutral party.
Organizational Structure Roles and Responsibilities of participants within a project
It is paramount to devise formal structure for a project and its staff. It creates a sense of accountability on each participant. Every role and responsibility, though they vary, must be accompanied by equal authority.
Such assignments exist until an activity is completed. With WBS, PGS can be able to more accurately define and organize the project. Its hierarchical tree structure enables PGS to break down project deliverables/objectives into specific and measurable chunks. It is also possible to gain benefits through assigning of responsibilities. In addition, with it, it is possible to allocate resources and also helps to monitor and control projects. Each individual is assigned a work package, resources and authority necessary to achieve required deliverables. WBS also establishes line of reporting.
Controlling and coordinating a project
Project control and coordination provides a means through which the quality of the project can be monitored and adjusted when necessary. In addition, other kind of issues arising from the projects can be settled. It is possible to link the project team and the expectations of the project, through the control and coordination functions. In addition, it will be possible to make decisions that affect the whole project and correct mistakes depending on the updates provided in the project reports. Controlling relates to the issues that have both been identified and those that are yet to be identified in the process. The management needs to identify strategies through which they will manage IT projects. IT projects at times require updates and it is necessary to identify the right aspects that require updating and how it can be done.
Project leadership requirement and qualities
Benevolent leadership style is encouraged in PGS in order to develop trusted relationships among members of the project team. Project manager at the helm of any project will be required to possess excellent interpersonal skills, be visionary and consulting with all members of the team. S/he must however be able to mobilize both persons and resources to achieve the goal of a project within a specified period of time. In large projects, leadership is devolved downwards by delegating authority to some team members who act on behalf of the project managers. These individuals are chosen according to their ability to manipulate their colleagues to achieve goals in time specified. Leaders must demonstrate good communication, interpersonal, influential, motivational, sometimes commanding, analytical and critical thinking abilities. These abilities must however be applied for the project good not in harassing team members.
Human resources requirements for a project
Some of the principles (First Principles) required for a project is that it must have a team which is dedicated, a project leader, as well as feature issues of project management (Bing, 1994; cited in Wideman, 2010). In PGS, human resource management is one of processes required to coordinate human resources on a project. In a project scenario, human resources involves developing a Human resource plan, acquiring staff, measuring the performance of staff and releasing them at the end. Human resource plan contains for each human resource category, information such as: the number of staff required, costing information and assumptions, when staff are needed and for how long and any special skills required over and above the normal categories, training requirement specifically for a given project, office and material requirements and plans for team building activities – motivation management.
Human resource in a project plays a major role in recruiting relevant staff, determining remunerations, conducting on job training and motivating the project team. It also helps in assessing staff performance and making recommendations accordingly. Already, companies have recognized the importance of sourcing workers that are qualified, workers that are the best, as well as preparation and developing them. A serious company must concentrate on building and developing the workforce, and it is necessary that the project leaders seek for the most qualified for the tasks involved. In addition, the number of workers in relation to the requirements is important, as managers will have to seek for the right number of workers to complete the task in the desired time. Work planning need to be done so as to optimize on the labor costs.
Planning and establishing project organization
Planning process of a project in PGS contains a high level description of all phases and their respective activities needed to complete a project, an understanding between phases such as deliverables created in previous phases and what are created for subsequent phases and different resources required in each phase and explanation of any special/unusual techniques required. Planning can help in saving costs, because managers or the leaders will realize the best alternatives, as relates to the materials to use, the information to utilize as well as their costs. Planning can help because managers or leaders can compare the price of commodities from various suppliers. In addition, it is possible to seek the best staff for the project in question.
When such a plan is laid down prior to initiating a project, tasks can be sequenced without alterations and changes thereafter. In organizing a project, project team can be considered as a matrix. Different sub-teams in a project will need to work together on various aspects. Each sub-team needs a leader who will assign individual responsibilities. As such chain of command and line of reporting are easy to establish. Teams help individuals feel belonging and instill a sense of responsibility and share values – collective goals. Transference of knowledge as well as sharing knowledge is also achievable. Interaction between team members provides a balanced view of all perspectives and capabilities can be exploited to the full. Such organization also encourages interplay and progress.
Project scheduling, estimating and cost control techniques
This is one of the most important activities in project management along with identifying the critical path and critical activities. PGS seeks to establish and understand relationships which will accelerate a project and compress the whole exercise. In its approach to scheduling and cost control, PGS applies Critical Path Analysis to determine the sum total of all activities needed to accomplish a project, duration of time required to execute each work package, resource requirements and dependency and sequence of tasks necessary to achieve specified goals. With critical path, PGS is able to fast track activities and also crash on the critical path when need be. It is possible to schedule, estimate and control cost of a project by use of critical path. The critical path helps PGS estimate the duration and overall cost of a project and also gives room for costing analysis. For instance, fast tracking helps in performing more activities in parallel thus reducing time and cost required to accomplish task. This is done by introducing dummy paths where need be. Through crashing the critical path, more resources are introduced in the project and sequencing overlooked. This might have impact on costing but the project can be completed on time. Critical path analysis also helps in resolving conflicting scheduling conflicts.
Measuring project performance
Project performance is evaluated through a post implementation review that seeks to determine the level of client’s satisfaction, sustainability and reliability of the project product. Initial project objectives are weighed against its performance and this as a matter of fact is a direct gauge of the project performance. It also involves testing the product to durability, strength, resilience, stability and dependability. In areas of software development, the product is tested against vulnerability to viral attacks, hacking, computation requirements –memory and CPU speed among others.
Change control procedure
The aim of this procedure is to define the process to be applied to control requests to modify a project to meet new or changing requirements. Change control procedures are used to assess, track and manage changes by directing actions toward reaching an informed and timely decision on requests for changes. Any project stakeholder or team member can identify a potential change request. Change communication is done orally or through email. The project manager assigns change request to an individual or team (change request owner) for analysis. He then notifies the change request owner of assignment and analysis due date. Change request analysis is done. If approved, work plan is updated to reflect this change. Otherwise it is closed. The whole team has to be informed of the change and the updated work plan.
A change may require reworking, modification and remodeling work plan and product. PGS has defined levels of change control to be applied in every project. A Change Log is a prerequisite for recording permutations.
Evaluating a completed project
Project product ability to meet initial specification and client need is key to every project achievement. Initial project objectives are weighed against its performance and this as a matter of fact is a direct gauge of the project performance. It also involves testing the product to durability, strength, resilience, stability and dependability. Close and periodical monitoring will also help identify the performance of project product.
Conclusion
At the end, the client/Coca Cola and the project delivery team/ PGS were satisfied by the end product of the project. On the part of PGS, the project was completed on time though there was a need to fast track and crashes the critical path. The Coca Cola Company was satisfied by the end product. Now it saves on money, has better access to projects and costing information repository and wed based services.
References
Bing, J. (1994) Principles of Project Management. PMNETwork, PMI, 40.
Chapman, J. (2001) Project management principles. Web.
Sweeney, M. (2010) Clearing the Utilities on Time and Under Budget. Leadersh. Manage. Eng 10.1. Web.
Wideman, M. (2010) Fundamental Principles of Project Management. Web.