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Presenters:
- Hyrine Matheka
-Fred Wekesa
JANUARY, 2011.
Table of Contents
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................4
1.0) INTRODUCTION;
This paper will examines explicitly concepts as used in project management drawing examples
from the classical and neo classical theories of management whilst standing on its own as new
discipline . as new discipline as new project management authors defend the concept as an
important steps towards successful implementation of projects
In a number of literatures, it has generally been seen that there is no explicit theory of
project management. Thus, the foundation of the project management discipline appears
to be somewhat weak. On the other hand, there is a wealth of literature researching
projects to determine what people do in project management, followed by conclusions
drawn, as well as a wealth of advice on ‗How to do it better‘ (practices). However, since
few projects appear to predefine their product success criteria, the results of these projects
may be good, bad, or indifferent.
A theory emanates from concepts and causal relationships that relate to these concepts.
(Whetten 1989).
The Project Management Book of Knowledge ( PMBOK) Guide states that projects are
composed of two kinds of processes: project management processes and product-oriented
processes (which specify and create the project product). Project management processes
are further divided into initiating, planning, execution, controlling and closing processes.
The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern Project Management era where core
engineering fields come together working as one. Project management became
recognized as a distinct discipline arising from the management discipline with
engineering mode In the United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on
an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt Charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that
time, two mathematical project-scheduling models were developed. The "Critical Path
Method" (CPM) was developed as a joint venture between DuPont
Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects.
And the "Program Evaluation and Review Technique" or PERT, was developed by Booz
Allen Hamilton as part of the United States Navy's (in conjunction with the Lockheed
Corporation) Polaris missile submarine program; These mathematical techniques quickly
spread into many private enterprises. At the same time, as project-scheduling models
were being developed, technology for project cost estimating, cost management, and
engineering economics was evolving, with pioneering work by Hans Lang and others. In
1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International; the
Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was formed by early practitioners
of project management and the associated specialties of planning and scheduling, cost
estimating, and cost/schedule control (project control). AACE continued its pioneering
work and in 2006 released the first integrated process for portfolio, program and project
management (Total Cost Management Framework).
The International Project Management Association (IPMA) was founded in Europe in
1967,as a federation of several national project management associations. IPMA
maintains its federal structure today and now includes member associations on every
continent except Antarctica. IPMA offers a Four Level Certification program based on
the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB). The ICB covers technical competences,
contextual competences, and behavioral competences.
In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed in the USA.PMI
publishes A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide),
which describes project management practices that are common to "most projects, most
of the time." PMI also offers multiple certifications.
commitment of varied skills and resources‖. A project is ―unique endeavor. Projects are
temporary in nature, while operations are ongoing. UNCRD (2000) Projects have. ‗a
complex set of activities where resources are used in expectation of returns and which
lends itself to planning, financing and implementing as a unit. A project usually has a
specific starting point and a specific ending point, intending to accomplish specific
objectives. It usually has a well defined sequence of investment and production activities
and a specific group of benefits that can be identified, quantified and valued, either
socially or monetarily.‘
ISO 10006 see a project as ‗a unique process consisting of a set of coordinated and
controlled activities with start and finish dates undertaken to achieve an objective
conforming to specific requirements including the constraints of time, cost and resources
. Singh and Nyandemo (2004) define a project as ‗an endeavor in which human, material
and financial resources are organized in a novel way to undertake a unique scope of
work, of a given specification within constraints of cost, time and the prevailing
environment, so as to achieve beneficial changes defined by quantitative and qualitative
objectives
Gittinger (1982) defines a ‗project‘ as... an investment activity upon which resources – costs – are
expended to create capital assets that will produce benefits over an extended period of time and
which logically lends itself to planning, financing, and implementing as a Unit. A specific
activity, with specific starting point and specific ending point, intended to accomplish a specific
objective..
Or, put more succinctly, ‗The whole complex of activities for which money will be spent in
expectation of returns‘ (ibid.). In this sense, each project, such as building a highway, is regarded
as a discrete or separate activity.
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring
about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. The primary challenge of
project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the
preconceived project constraints.
Typical constraints are scope, time, and budget. The secondary—and more determined —
challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined
objectives. Project management is concerned with the overall planning and co-ordination of a
project from beginning to end aimed at meeting the stated requirements and ensuring completion
on time, within cost and to required quality standards. Project management is normally reserved
for focused, non-repetitive, time-limited activities with some degree of risk and that are beyond
the usual scope of operational activities for which the organization is responsible.
―Project Management is the skills; tools and management processed required undertaking a
project successfully‖.
Fig 1. Typical Project Constraints, Adopted from PMBOK 4th Edition 2004.
Figure 2: Project management framework11( source : Basic Project Management two learning books , 2009)
Patel and Morris (2004) have stated that "The life cycle is the only thing that uniquely
distinguishes projects from non- projects".
The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project‘s goals
or objectives. Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a series of stages
during its life. There is first an Initiation or Birth phase, in which the outputs and critical success
factors are defined, followed by a Planning phase, characterized by breaking down the project
into smaller parts/tasks, an Execution phase, in which the project plan is executed, and lastly a
Closure or Exit phase, that marks the completion of the project. Project activities must be grouped
into phases because by doing so, the project manager and the core team can efficiently plan and
organize resources for each activity, and also objectively measure achievement of goals and
justify their decisions to move ahead, correct, or terminate. It is of great importance to organize
project phases into industry-specific project cycles. Why? Not only because each industry sector
involves specific requirements, tasks, and procedures when it comes to projects, but also because
different have industry sectors had different needs for life cycle management methodology. And
paying close attention to such details is the difference between doing things well and excelling as
project managers.
Diverse project management tools and methodologies prevail in the different project cycle
phases. Let‘s take a closer look at what‘s important in each one of these stages;
Comparison to theories in the general field of operations reveals that the perspective is
that of management-as-planning (Johnston & Brennan 1996). Here, it is assumed that
the organization consists of a management part and an effect or part. Management at the
operations level is seen to consist of the centralized creation, revision and
implementation of plans. This approach to management views a strong causal
connection between the actions of management and outcomes of the organization. By
assuming that translating a plan into action is the simple process of issuing ―orders‖, it
takes plan production to be essentially synonymous with action.
Trott (1998:157) e.g. argues that ―it is the setting of achievable targets and realistic
objectives that helps to ensure a successful project‖. Also the EU requirements
concerning the management of EU-funded research projects has a focus on scheduling
milestones and deliverables. Yet contrary to this common-sense assumption, realism is
no useful concept in project planning say Christensen and Kreiner. First of all ‗realism‘
is not at all feasible given the high amount of uncertainty surrounding project work.
Secondly ‗realistic‘ plans might lead to underachievement.
Evidence presented by Locke (1968) also suggests that individuals who have been given
difficult but attainable goals are more motivated to work towards these goals than
individuals who have been given goals that are perceived as either too easy or too
difficult (in the latter case this may lead to non-acceptance of the goal). Therefore, rather
than advocating unrealistic planning I would recommend using such terms as ‗highly
ambitious‘, ‗challenging‘ or ‗very optimistic‘ planning. Bennis and Biederman
(1997:209) have also stressed the importance of an optimistic approach to work and
claim that optimistic People accomplish more.
The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed
and controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve
the problem specified in the project's requirements. In product and system development, a
design resulting in a specific set of product requirements is created. This convergence is
measured by prototypes, testing, and reviews. As the execution phase progresses, groups
across the organization become more deeply involved in planning for the final testing,
production, and support. The most common tools or methodologies used in the execution
phase are an update of Risk Analysis and Score Cards, in addition to Business Plan and
Milestones Reviews. The underlying theory of execution turns out to be similar to the
concept of job dispatching in manufacturing where it provides the interface between
plan and work. This concept can be traced back to Emerson (1917). The basic issue
in dispatching is allocating or assignment of tasks or jobs to machines or work
crews, usually by a central authority. According to a modern definition, job
dispatching is a procedure that uses logical decision rules to select a job for
processing on a machine that has just come available (Bhaskaran & Pinedo 1991).
Here, the underlying theory seems to be the classical theory of communication (Shannon &
Weaver 1949), where a set of symbols (voice or written speech) is transmitted from sender
to receiver. Here on controlling we consider only performance reporting, based on
performance baseline, and associated corrections to execution. They clearly correspond to
the cybernetic model of management control (thermostat model) that consists of the
following elements (Hofstede 1978): standard performance , performance measured at the
out put or input , possible variance between standard and measured value is used for
correcting the process so that the standards can be reached .
.
5.5) Closure
In this last stage, the project manager must ensure that the project is brought to its proper
completion. The closure phase is characterized by a written formal project review report
containing the following components: a formal acceptance of the final product by the client,
Weighted Critical Measurements (matching the initial requirements specified by the client
with the final delivered product), rewarding the team, a list of lessons learned, releasing
project resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management. No
special tool or methodology is needed during the closure phase. the termination of the
project, focuses on evaluating the results of the project. The traditional way to
measure project success is to try to assess how well the final results correspond to
the aims originally set for the project. But, argue Christensen and Kreiner, this is not
a reasonable way to evaluate a project given that conditions for the project may have
changed considerably during the project period.
But how can we measure the success of a project? Numerous perspectives may be
applied not just the rather obvious ones related to the utility of the project result itself or
the utility for the organisation in which the project was carried out. Indeed, even a strict,
organizational perspective may also be open to more than one interpretation where
several organisations are involved in a joint project or where several departments within
one organisation take part. In addition to the organizational/project perspective at least
also an individual and a societal perspective may be applied to measure success. What
did participants get out of the project personally and/or professionally? What will the
project mean for the participants‘ future co-operation in the field? What kind of new
research does the project give rise to for each project participant? What may the project
mean for society in terms of economy, jobs, rate of innovation etc.?
Figure 3: Project Life Cycle Souce ; Gido, J., Successful Project Management, 4th Ed.
Regardless of project type, the project plan should undergo Resource Leveling, and the
longest sequence of resource-constrained tasks should be identified as the critical chain.
In multi-project environments, resource leveling should be performed across projects.
However, it is often enough to identify (or simply select) a single "drum" resource—a
resource that acts as a constraint across projects—and stagger projects based on the
availability of that single resource.
6.1) EXTREME PROJECT MANAGEMENT
In critical studies of Project Management, it has been noted that several of these
fundamentally PERT-based models are not well suited for the multi-project company
environment of today. Most of them are aimed at very large-scale, one-time, non-routine
projects, and nowadays all kinds of management are expressed in terms of projects.
Using complex models for "projects" (or rather "tasks") spanning a few weeks has been
proven to cause unnecessary costs and low maneuverability in several cases. Instead,
project management experts try to identify different "lightweight" models, such as Agile
Project Management methods including Extreme Programming for software development
and Scrum techniques.
6.2.1) Probabilistic moment of risk: An activity (task) in most real life processes is
not a continuous uniform process. Tasks are affected by external events, which
can occur at some point in the middle of the task.
6.2.2) Event chains: Events can cause other events, which will create event chains.
These event chains can significantly affect the course of the project. Quantitative
analysis is used to determine a cumulative effect of these event chains on the
project schedule.
6.2.3) Critical events or event chains: The single events or the event chains that have
the most potential to affect the projects are the ―critical events‖ or ―critical chains
of events.‖ They can be determined by the analysis.
6.2.4) Project tracking with events: Even if a project is partially completed and data
about the project duration, cost, and events occurred is available, it is still
possible to refine information about future potential events and helps to forecast
future project performance.
6.2.5) Event chain visualization: Events and event chains can be visualized
using event chain diagrams on a Gantt chart.
In the method, each process is specified with its key inputs and outputs and with specific
goals and activities to be carried out. This allows for automatic control of any deviations
from the plan. Divided into manageable stages, the method enables an efficient control of
resources. On the basis of close monitoring, the project can be carried out in a controlled
and organized way.
PRINCE2 provides a common language for all participants in the project. The various
management roles and responsibilities involved in a project are fully described and are
adaptable to suit the complexity of the project and skills of the organization.
The central task of any project manager regardless of her field is to navigate between the
conflicting demands of time, cost and performance. The project manager constantly has
to weigh these demands against each other and trade off one against the other. If there are
time delays this may increase cost. But if the delay is cut short this may impact
negatively on the result of the project. Juggling this triangle of time, cost and
performance is the most overall level at which to describe any project manager‘s
responsibility. Mikkelsen and Riis (1998:94-95)
A project manager is usually responsible for the success or the failure of the project. They first
need to define the project and then build its work plan. If the scope of the project is not very clear,
or the project is executing poorly, the manager is held accountable. However, this does not mean
that the manager does all the work by himself (which is practically impossible). There is an entire
team under the project manager, which helps to achieve all the objectives of the project.
However, if something goes wrong, the project manager is ultimately accountable.
It is the responsibility of project manager to make sure that the customer is satisfied and the work
scope is completed in a quality manner, using budget, and on time. The Project Manager has
primary responsibility for providing leadership in planning, organizing and controlling the work
effort to accomplish the project objectives. In other words, the project manager provides the
leadership to project team to accomplish the project objective. The project manager coordinates
the activities of various team members to ensure that they perform the right tasks at the proper
time, as a cohesive group. The different roles of project manager are as follows:
7.1.1) Planning
First, the project manager clearly defines the project objectives and reaches agreement with the
customer on this objective. The manager then communicate this objective to the project team in
such a manner as to create a vision of what will constitute successful accomplishment of the
objective. The project manager spearheads development of a plan to achieve the project
objectives. By involving the project team in developing this plan, the project manager ensures
more comprehensive plan than he or she could develop alone. Furthermore, such participation
gains the commitment of the team to achieve the plan. The project manager reviews the plan with
the customer to gain endorsement and then sets up the project management information system-
either manual or computerized-for comparing actual progress to plan progress. It‘s important that
this system be explained to the project team so that the team can use it properly to manage the
project.
7.1.2) Organizing
Organizing involves securing the appropriate resources to perform the work. First, the project
must decide which tasks should be done in-house and which tasks should be done by
subcontractors or consultants. For tasks that will be carried out in- house, the project manager
gains a commitment from the specific people who will work on the project. For tasks that will be
performed by subcontractors, the project manager clearly defines the work scope and deliverables
and negotiates a contract with each subcontractor. The project manager also assigns responsibility
and delegates‘ authority to specific individuals or subcontractors for the various tasks, with the
understanding that they will be accountable for the accomplishment of their tasks within the
assigned budget and schedule. For large projects involving many individuals, the project manager
may designate leaders for specific group of tasks. Finally, and most important, the task of
organizing involves creating an environment in which the individuals are highly motivated to
work together as a project team.
7.1.3) Controlling
To control the project, the project manager implements a management information system
designed to track actual progress and compare it with planned progress. Such a system helps the
manager distinguish between busyness and accomplishments. Project team members monitor the
progress of their assigned tasks and regularly. provide data on progress, schedule and cost. These
data are supplemented by regular project review meetings. If actual progress falls behind planned
progress or unexpected events occur the project manager takes immediate action. He or she
obtains input and advice from team members regarding appropriate corrective actions and how to
re-plan those parts of the project. It‘s important that problems and even potential problems, be
identified early and action taken. The project manager cannot take a ―let‘s wait and see how
things works out‖ approach- things never works out on their own. He or she must intervene and
be proactive, resolving problems before they become worse.
7.1.4) Leading
Project manager fosters development of a common mission and vision to the team members. He
should clearly define roles, responsibilities and performance expectations for all his team
members. He uses leadership style appropriately to situation or stage of team development. He
should be able to foster collaboration among team members. He should provide clear direction
and priorities to his team members. He should be efficient enough to remove obstacles that
hamper team progress, readiness or effectiveness. He should promote team participation in
problem solving and decision making as appropriate. He should pass credit on to team, and
promotes their positive visibility to upper management. He should appreciate, promote and
leverage the diversity within the team.
7.1.5) Communicating
The Project Manager should be able to communicate effectively with all levels inside and outside
of the organizations. He should be able to negotiate fairly and effectively with the
customers/subcontractors. He should be able to bring conflicts into the open and manages it
collaboratively and productively with the help of other team members. He should be able to able
to influence without relying on coercive power or threats. He should be able to convey ideas and
information clearly and concisely, both in writing and orally to all the team members.
8.0) CONCLUSION:
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