In every project, there are always component stages that make it a complete project. These stages are the activities that are to be conducted in the process of bringing the project into a successful completion. There are generally five stages that a project will always go through from the inception to conclusion.
The first stage component is the initiation of the project. This is where the project is outlined so that project members can understand what the project involves.
The second stage is planning the project. In this stage, all the involved parties gather together in order to discuss some of the important deliverables in the project, and how every task shall be accomplished.
The third stage is the project execution. This involves putting into practice, all the activities that were planned in the previous stage.
The next stage is project control. This involves monitoring and evaluation of the project. The last component stage is project closure. This comes after the stakeholders have confirmed that the project has met all the requirements that it was meant for.
Project life cycle basically involves the stages described above. A project life cycle is the activities that that are undertaken by project team members from the inception stage to completion.
At inception, the project manager will have the responsibility of explaining to the members what the project entails and the main objectives that are to be realized through the project.
In the second phase of planning, the technical team members of the project comes together in order to have a clear blueprint on how every activity of the project is going to be accomplished.
The third stage is the execution. At this stage, all the stakeholders are assigned different duties as per the specification of the blueprint. This stage in the lifecycle is very important because it is the actual process of implementation.
The next stage of project control involves the actual monitoring of the project, and determining the extent to which the project has been successful, and some of the changes that might be necessary to make the project realize its dream.
The last stage in the lifecycle of project closure would always come automatically. When a project is successful in meeting its obligations, the project managers, project members and all other stakeholders who are involved in the project, will determine when the project should be brought to a closure.
This always happens after all the important stakeholders are satisfied that a project has successfully met the expectation of the involved parties.
A project is part of operational activities within a firm. It is important to appreciate the fact that a project is not an independent activity from activities carried out within a firm. It is only special because there are specifically meant to achieve some objectives.
Upon completion, the project is always brought to a closure, and a new project is brought forth. Project therefore, fits in research and development arm of a firm. Within a firm, there will always be the arm responsible for research and extension.
This arm is responsible for ensuring that the firm comes up with new ideas that will make it competitive in the market. Projects therefore, fall in this department. Projects are creative ideas that are put into practice in order to make a positive change within the firm.
Research and development unit is best positioned to monitor and fund the activities of various purposes for it is the very reason for its existence.
There are a number of approaches in managing a project. Each is suitable depending on the type of project involved, and some of the expected constrains. Traditional approach to project management is always popular when handling projects which had been handled before.
This is because the project manager is always aware of the events that may be expected in the project. Traditional approach fits well when there is a clear understanding of some of the challenges that the project may face is the process of accomplishing it.
Critical chain approach is another approach which is a little different from the traditional approach to project management. In this approach, the project manager and team members assumes that there might be a constraint or two that may hinder the normal flow of the project.
This is always the case when dealing with new projects that the firm has no clear focus on. The project members will be forced to use behavioral and mathematical science in predicting, analyzing and finally removing constrains that may affect the normal success of the project.
Another standard approach is the extreme project approach. This approach is always recommended when the project entails a highly dynamic situation. In is a situation where there is high likelihood that some of the current constrains may easily change along the way.
The approach is therefore designed to manage these changes. Finally, events chain projects approach may also be appropriate when dealing with some projects.
In this case, there is always the suspicion that one constrain may create a chain of constraints that may have an impact on the project success. It is therefore designed, not only to manage any constrain that may arise, but also to deal with the issue of one constrain spilling over to affect other constrains.
In order to ensure that there is success in a project, it is always important to ensure that there is an effective project management environment.
An effective project management environment offers all members a perfect environment where they can participate in project activities and give their best to ensure an overall success of the project.
There are a number of ways in which project manager, projects coordinator and other senior officials of a project can take to ensure that the project is successful. One of the most important activities in ensuring that there is a good environment is to ensure that all members of the project can express themselves freely.
All the involved members of the project should be offered opportunity to express their views about the project, and how the project shall be brought into a successful completion.
There should not be any form of high handedness when implementing policies in the project, and every member of the project should feel appreciated.
The project manager should clearly define activity of every member of the organization in order to avoid cases where there is overlapping of duties, or confusion when it comes to assigning of tasks within the firm.
Availing all the needed materials for the project also helps in ensuring that the project environment is made more successful.
Communication is one of the key factors in ensuring that a project is made successful. A number of scholars have pointed out the fact that a project that succeeds is a project that has a clear communication system between different stakeholders.
It is through this communication that various departments will be able to coordinate in order to achieve the desired result. There should be a clearly defined vertical and horizontal flow of communication. The chief executive will communicate with the project manager and members through the projects coordinator.
The chief executive will inform the projects coordinator of his or her expectations of the projects, and some of the special areas that there should be special attention. The projects coordinator will then pass this communication to the project manager who shall finally pass it to project members.
Any communication from the members should follow the same channel up. When a member communicates directly to the chief executive or projects coordinator without informing the projects manager, the act can be considered insubordination.
This can discourage the projects manager and this may hinder success of the project. It is however, a common phenomenon for a chief executive, or the projects coordinator to speak generally to all the members in one sitting, especially when giving a piece of advice to them or an encouragement.
Members should be able to communicate freely among themselves.
A business case is always fundamental in supporting a project. It is always a general belief that when committing any resource of a firm to any project, there should be a strong reason for doing so.
Accountability of all the funds of a firm is one of the reasons why there is always the need to ensure that the top management is able to account for every cent used in the firm.
A project case is therefore, a strong justification why a given project is important, clearly defining some of the benefits that the firm stands to benefit from the project either in the short run or the long run business plans.
The business case will be justifying why the project should be undertaken, and how the resources used in it shall be recovered, and the overall benefits it will have to the firm.
A project case is always useful when a project is presented to the board of directors or senior management team of the firm for approval. A strong business case will be able to convince the decision makers that there is need to carry out the project.
Project Plan
Purpose of the Report
This report is meant to advertise car tracker software developed by a group of students within the campus. Although my society members consider universities as institutions for inventions and innovations, they have not taken seriously the fact that very good products can come from these universities.
The fact that students lack enough money to bankroll expensive television commercials, their products always fail to get public attention, making it difficult to get the market they need. Their invention ends up being stolen, if not cheaply bought by major companies which have the capacity to commercialize the product.
This project aims at helping these innovative students by ensuring that their products receives the much needed public attention that will help make the known in the market.
Background of the study
Students have been complaining that they work hard to come up with various innovative ideas but the ideas are never developed. They state that they come up with ideas, but because of enough money, their ideas are always bought cheaply by companies who use them to earn a lot of money.
In some cases, they are always surprised by unethical actions of some companies which steal their ideas at their inception. This group that came up with this project worked very hard to ensure that the project is a success.
Sure enough, they have been able to test and confirm the fact that the device works well and can help reduce cases of theft of cars.
The main concern is now to ensure that the device reaches the market in time, and that the developers of the software get to benefit, and not greedy companies that are always ready to steal these ideas.
Activities of the Project
Project Scope
As stated above, the scope of this project is limited to advertisement and other mechanisms through which the software can be known in the market. The scope of this project does not include any technicalities of the product.
It is also important that this project does not cover delivering the product to the market. It specifically focuses on the awareness creation of the product in the market.
Project Objectives
It is always important to specify objectives of a project. In this project, there were specific objects that the project manager, together with project members, wishes to achieve.
- Creation of general awareness of the product within the domestic market within a period of four months.
- Make the market know the existence of the product and some of the features that make the product unique.
- Deter any form of piracy, or an attempt to mimic this technology by major industry players through massive advertisement and warnings.
- Help the students who developed this idea take their product to the market.
Project Deliverables
Project deliverables are some of the tangible and intangible outcomes of a project. In this project, some of the project deliverables include the extent to which people will be aware of this product after four months that the project plans to take.
Another deliverable in this project includes the amount of income that the developers shall generate through the sale of their project. The ability of the product to be sold in the market without any form of piracy is also another deliverable in this project.
Constrains
In every project, there are always project constrains that should be considered in making the project successful. In this project, the first constrain was time. As a student, it was not easily to get free time to conduct a massive awareness of the product in the market.
Another constrain was finance to enable project members move from one corner of the country to another; and to use some of the major media stations in this country.
Risk Management, Project Quality, Monitoring and Control
It is always important to understand some of the risks that are always presented in any given project, and how to manage them. In this project, the management of project risks will be conducted by a special group which will be responsible for quality management.
They will be responsible for detecting and managing of the risks in time. The team will be responsible for monitoring various activities within the firm, and determining the best control methods for these risks and other issues that may arise in the process of project implementation