Effective Project Management Practices Case Study

Introduction

In understanding project and project management, it is imperative to understand a project scope. A project scope can be defined as an early planning activity which defines the sphere of a project. A project scope is fundamental in understanding the clear definition of the project which will enable the project manager to avoid sphere inflation.

A project scope encompasses the entire task involved in the creation of the products of the project and the processes that creates them and also the processes that are involved in the definition and controlling all that is or that is not integrated in the project (Paliktzoglou, 2008d, p. 12).

Project management entails the application of knowledge and skills in project activities in order to meet stakeholder objectives and expectations of the project. This responsibility is entrusted into the hands of a project manager who will undertake the details of the project on a daily basis.

Project management is a delicate task since it involves balancing various demands which might often conflict: these are like the balancing of resource and expectations, balancing various stakeholder priorities, getting the correct understanding of the project and the objectives and balancing between quality and the quantity of the project.

Good Practices in Project Management in the Case Study

Planning: the fact that Bob was tasked with the responsibility of coming up with a plan or a schedule for running the project is an indication that planning was made part of the project. Planning is instrumental in enhancing the quality of the project and reducing the duration of time that will be taken to finish the project. Project planning involves the overview of the project, objectives of the project and the scope.

Management and planning of work plan: this involves the management of the work plan and monitoring of the schedule and the budget. This practice was also factored in especially when Bob was asked to present the scope of the project and present the schedule with the budget to the executive committee; this meant that this good practice was adhered to.

There were no bad practices in the project.

Steps that Bob should follow to ensure success of the Project

Step One

The first step is that Bob should be in a position to comprehend the context of the project; this context might include the gains that the organization might achieve when the project is successfully finished. It should be known to Bob that minus a clear context of the project, it may be difficult to successfully complete it.

Step Two

The second step for Bob is to identify stakeholders and sponsors of the project. In this context the stakeholders include the head of marketing department who are in charge of the project, the executive management board which is the body tasked with decision making and reviewing the progress of the project and the head operations officer with whom Bob will be directly reporting to and who will be approving the project.

Step Three

The third step is for Bob to developing the objectives of the project: this will encompass the project documentation, the definition of the scope of the project, to ensure that the contents of the project are agreed upon and it should be made public.

The basic components of the project are the project statement, identification of the constraints facing the project and it should seek to answer the questions of what? When? Why? And How? And also Bob should obtain the permission to proceed with the undertaking of the project, the monitoring of the project, the reporting of the project and evaluation of the project (Rad and Anantatmula, 2010, p. 17).

Step Four

Lastly Bob should take care to also follow communication model: in the implementation of the project, communication is the basic principle that necessitates the involvement of all stakeholders in the implementation of project.

For communication to be effective the following steps should be followed:

Transmission: this can be achieved via the sending of e-mail, a voice mail, the use of memo or telephone calls which are instrumental in the relaying of information to the other parties. The sending of information cannot be an assurance that the other party has read or heard of it but an indication that the message has been transmitted to the recipient; this particularly applies to the web or mail. Transmitting of information cannot be a guarantee that it will be read.

Received: this implies that when the recipient checks his mail or opens the FedEx envelope. It is only an indication that the message has been received but, it is not a guarantee that the recipient has an intention of reading the message.

Understood: the correct interpretation of the message is an indication that a cognitive activity has occurred which is necessary for the understanding of the information. Understanding involves interrogation for the recipient to seek clarification on ambiguous parts of the original message.

Agreed: Understanding information is not an indication that an agreement has been reached. The process of reaching an agreement is different and time consuming one and often a difficult task.

Conversion into useful action: it is understood that reaching an agreement is a hard task and a lot of energy is required and when an action is taken on the account that information transmitted is a reflection of the fact that the information has materialized.

The principle of project management that was applied in the project is communication. In the implementation of the project, good information that conforms to the above five models of communication. Bob, in order to ensure that the project is successful, communication should be made effective (Berkun, 2005a, 1).

Good communication is important in project management since the failure to communicate may lead to the failure of the projects.

There is often the perception that professionals in IT are poor communicators and Bob should avoid this culture stereotyping; this is because for IT professionals to succeed in their careers, they should be in position to effectively communicate. Strong communication is fundamental in implementation of the project.

The Communication Processes that Bob should follow

Communication planning: this involves the determination of the information communication demands of the stakeholders. Because he has been asked to be reporting to the head operations officer, Bob should develop a good communication plan.

All projects must involve a good communication management schedule or rather a document that guide communication during the project processes. Creating a stakeholder examination for a project will assist in communication planning.

This will encompass the stakeholder communication needs, the kind of information to be submitted with the format and the content together with the level of the details to be contained in the communication. It should also factor in the type of people who will benefit or receive the information and the methods of conveying the information that will be generated by Bob. The frequency of the communication and the process of updating the communication plan also matters.

Information distribution: since there are four stakeholders involved in monitoring and implementing the project. Making information available in the recommended time will facilitate the effective implementation and also enhance the success of the project (Paliktzoglou, 2008b, p. 8).

Performance reporting: Bob should be in position to collect and disseminate information for the performance of the project. This is instrumental in enabling the stakeholders to be informed on the extent and also on how the resources are used and whether the objectives are being met.

The three main parts of performance reporting are status reporting which explains the level of the project; progress reports which explains the project level that has been finished at a particular time; and the forecast which projects the future status and the progress based on the previous trends.

Managing stakeholders: Bob should manage communication in order to meet the demands of the project stakeholders and to be in a better place to resolve some emerging issues (Paliktzoglou, 2008b, p. 3).

In managing the stakeholders, Bob who is the project manager should be in position to understand and to co-operate with the other stakeholders. He should as well define some ways of identifying and resolving problems which will be achieved by the use of the following instruments: the expectation management matrix and the issue log (Paliktzoglou, 2008a, p. 22).

What Bob should pay attention to when distributing Information

He should not conceal any information that he deems or is deemed crucial by the stakeholders; he should also be free to report all sorts of information whether good or bad. He should furthermore be in a position to supplement formal or written communication with oral communication since it will enhance interactive implementation of the project.

The Roles and Responsibilities

Project procurement: This word is synonymous to purchasing or outsourcing. As the project manager, Bob has the responsibility of planning purchases and any acquisition; this can be achieved by deciding on what to procure, when and how. There is also project contracting: this entails the description of the project that is required for procurement and to identify where to get them.

Requesting seller response: Bob will have to get information relating to the product which may be in form of bids and price quotation forms the prospective sellers.

Choosing sellers: after evaluating the bids and the price quotations, the project manager should decide on the sellers that they transact business with and the suppliers to negotiate contracts. Bob should be in position to evaluate between the cost of outsourcing the product and that of running their system in order to arrive at the best alternative (Paliktzoglou, 2008c, p. 2).

Risk management: Another principle applied is risk management: risk management is understood to be the art involving the identification, the analysis and responding towards risk in the entire life of the project which will contribute to the realization of the objectives. Risk management is important in the success of the project because it can be used in the determination of the estimates of the project.

Projects without risk management are bound to fail. In this context it is imperative to analyze both the negative and the positive risk. Negative risk involves the understanding of the project and how the risks might contribute towards curtailing the project from succeeding and it is considered insurance or an investment in the processes of project management.

Positive risk on the other hand is a prospect of good things that might happen at the course of the project, they are rather referred as investments. In the course of project management, “the key objective is to minimize the potential risks and maximizing of the positive risks” (Paliktzoglou, 2008b, p. 15).

The process involved in the risk management is risk response, risk monitoring and control, the performance of risk analysis. The project manager should have a clear risk management plan as well as fall back plan. This risk involved in IT range from market risk, technology risk to people risk (Paliktzoglou, 2008b, p. 15).

Is Bob qualified to undertake the task?

Although Bob might not be in position to undertake the task, it is the duty of other stakeholders like the chief operations officer and the head of marketing will help in cultivating the desire of Bob towards enhancing his capabilities of the job.

The fact that the chief marketing officer identified Bob is an indication that he had confidence in him in performing the current job. Since he is assigned the role of project manager, Bob will consider borrowing a talent and adhere to the following;

He should follow advice: Bob, in order to enhance his skills should learn to listen to advice and to take the advices seriously especially form the head marketing officer and the chief operations officer.

Making demand: Bob should be in position to make demand form the seniors, he should also demonstrate his ability, strength, intelligence and skills to win the confidence of the managers.

He should inspire: to demonstrate his ability to be fit for the job, Bob should believe in what he is doing and by doing so he will have inspired the managers and indeed convince them that he is fit for the job (Berkun, 2005b, p. 1).

Project Management and Legal Issues

One factor that Bob should factor in is Project management vs. legal issues; this has an impact on project management since some cases of mismanagement will arise which will have an implication on the financial position of the company.

IT technology products are threatened with piracy and hence they come with copyright and are patented to prevent them from being pirated as such Bob should be careful in dealing with these software complications since they impact on the product that the company wishes to produce(Anon, n.d., p. 1).

Conclusion

The case study introduces a perfect subject of project management, the lumping together of the scope, schedule and the budget into the project management plan meant that the project management requires critical skills. The success of a project depends on the plan and the identification of risks.

It is also worth knowing that the existing bureaucracy in an organization and the infrastructure can at time be an impediment in the process of project management. A project manager must rely on his sound judgment and make use of the available resources especially in dealing with risk management which at times can be inevitable in project management.

Project managers must always learn to delicately balance between various points of view including diverse demands and interests, the project manager must be in a position to communicate any information to all stakeholders or the interested parties (McGhee and McAliney, 2007, p. 9).

Consequently, any work or task that is performed in an organization requires good public management strategies and a project manager who has a competent knowledge of project management.

References

Anon. (n.d.) The values and Ethics of Managers. Class Notes.

Berkun, S. (2005a) The art of project management. A basic model of communication. New York, NY: O’Reilly.

Berkun, S. (2005b) The art of project management. The best work attitude. New York, NY: O’Reilly.

McGhee, P and McAliney, P. (2007) Painless project management: a step-by-step guide for planning, executing, and managing projects. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.

Paliktzoglou, V. (2008a) Project Planning and Control. PPP.

Paliktzoglou, V. (2008b) Project Planning and Control. PPP.

Paliktzoglou, V. (2008c) Project Planning and Control. PPP.

Paliktzoglou, V. (2008d) Project Planning and Control. PPP.

Rad, P and Ananatmula, V. (2010) Successful Project Management Practices. New York, NY: Emerald Group Publishing.