What are the distinguishing features of projects - Essay Example

What are the distinguishing features of Projects Project management is management of creation, be it a new facility or improvement of the existing one, across the human need spectrum. It is a deliberate response of an individual or an organization to meet a requirement or need in planned manner. It has a planned start and planned finish dates with a set of resources deployed. The key to management of projects is like other management, managing the required inputs and resources optimally to add value. Project management is associated more with the developmental part of activities of organizations or societies rather than maintenance aspect. There is an interesting history of evolution of the discipline Project Management. "Project management was not used as an isolated concept before the Sputnik crisis of the Cold War. After this crisis, the United States Department of Defense needed to speed up the military project process and new tools (models) for achieving this goal were invented. In 1958 they invented the Program Evaluation and Review Technique or PERT, as part of the Polaris missile submarine program. At the same time, the DuPont corporation invented a similar model called CPM, critical path method. PERT was later extended with a work breakdown structure or WBS. The process flow and structure of the military undertakings quickly spread into many private enterprises"(www.bambooweb.com/articles) Till recently project management used to be referred to management of time, cost, quality, scope and resources associated with large size capital projects. But in the era of discontinuous change the essence of project managed has got integrated to routine working of the organizations in the form of improvement projects carried out by cross functional teams. This instrument is able to create higher level of energy and synergy among the team and challenging goals are achieved. What are the different types of projects There are various ways to classification of projects based on the output of the project, industry sector, geographical location etc but the classification of projects based on outcomes i.e. product of project management process is the commonly applied classification such as software project, building project, process improvement project etc. What are the keys to success in project management Project management is no longer limited to huge capital projects but it is becoming a way of life in organizations and priority goals are being achieved through improvement projects under various terminologies viz. six sigma breakthrough projects, cross functional teams around a project, Quality improvement projects etc. Looking carefully around the trends in organizations, following factors may be considered as key elements of successful project management: KM concepts in project management: A project can be broken down into many elements like sub projects, processes, activities, and performance of individuals, learning from both success and failure. Information/knowledge stored under different headings will go a long way in creating higher success rate. The Community of Practice concept deployed among the people engaged in project management will facilitate knowledge sharing and bonding leading to better performance with time. Focus on Thinking: Thinking is basically searching for something beyond existing and projects are having many facets, which need solution beyond existing ones. A culture of individual or shared thinking may result in beneficial result as compared to an approach where project management is synonymous with actions at breakneck speed. Leadership: Leadership has a more crucial role to play in project management than in routine jobs, as challenges are more formidable needing those extra energy levels from the team to make it extraordinary efforts. The essence of leadership i.e. influence on fellow human beings is needed. Thus the selection of project manager is crucial for the project success. Investment in planning: In the planning vs execution, planning aspect has to be addressed at a higher level as better plans will get easily executed leading to high degree of success. The IT tools will significantly facilitate in creating continuous plans based on data/ information regarding project obtained on a regular basis. There is an approach to a two-layered management model for a project. One is the Control Layer, or 'above the line', the other is the Work Layer, or 'below the line'. The Project Manager should be spending up to 15% of their time on 'above the line' activities if the project is to be managed in a quality manner, in order to achieve its stated outcomes/benefits (Smyrk, www.projectmanagement.tas.gov.au) Discuss high level and detailed planning "High level planning is the bird's eye view perspective which summarizes the key steps of project implementation. The purpose of Project Planning (High Level) is to begin to define the overall parameters of a project and to establish the appropriate project management and quality environment required to complete the project. The major deliverable for this process is the Project Initiation Plan" (http://www.cit.cornell.edu) Detailed plans of a project may include various heads of detailed planning viz. Work packages, evaluation plan, quality assurance plan, dissemination plan, exit/sustainability plan and legal issues (http://www.jisc.ac.uk) What are the various controls applied in project management As the complexities and challenges have multiplied many folds with regards to project management, various control systems are being deployed which have strong inbuilt IT element. Like other disciplines of management, project management comprises of a set of processes. These processes have process measures, key performance factors and metrics. Mechanisms have been developed for early warning on possible problems, deviations overruns for taking preventive steps or change the course of project activity. Financial analysis gives a measurement of effectiveness of progress of projects. Some of the financial concepts used for decision-making and exercising controls are Planned Value of work scheduled, Actual Cost of completed work and Earned Value of completed work. Estimating and forecasting needs are addressed through Cost and schedule Variance, estimate at Completion etc. Earned Value Management (EVM) is a composite index taking into account the measurement of performance with respect to cost, schedule and scope. Various tools are deployed to control the schedule including Critical Path Method (CPM).It is the chain of activities that links the beginning and completion of the project. Project Managers work on the critical path tasks and take appropriate decisions to achieve the goal of optimizing time schedule Smaller projects are controlled through tools like Gantt Charts the daily project plans, Task Lists etc. Whatever planning tool is selected, it should enable the identification of major milestones with tracking and progress reporting against them. Describe capacity management "Capacity management is the process of planning, analyzing, sizing, and optimizing capacity to satisfy demand in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost. This process should be proactive and responsive to business needs because the business cannot add resources after a capacity problem has happened without impacting performance"(http://www.microsoft.com) The maximum potential capacity is the amount of production capacity that can be made available in the short-term. Not all-productive capacity is actually used or usable. It is important for production managers to understand what capacity is actually achievable. What are some of the inventory control strategies practiced Customer-aligned Inventory Strategies In the old economic era inventory management has suffered from excessive inward focus and often a neglected activity. The knowledge gained into the impact of efficient inventory management driven by ever intensifying free market forces where customers have become more and more powerful. "Linking inventory requirements to customer requirements for response, quality, and their benefit-to-cost ratio by focusing on reduction of valueless time, valueless activity, and valueless variance in business processes. Interestingly, what satisfies customers can also efficiently align inventory" (Tersine, Wacker). The authors conclude, "The evaluation of inventory from the customers' perspective must be strategically addressed. If customers are served well with valueless time, activity, and variance removed, then cost should take care of itself and inventory will be diminished. Centralized vs. Decentralized Management of Inventories Charles J. Bodenstab discusses the key issue relative to managing inventories at companies with multiple warehouses or stocking branches and whether they should be managed in a centralized manner or decentralized manner. He recommends a centrally managed inventory having benefits in terms of deployment of more professional inventory managers removed from day-to-day events that cause reactionary actions. Added benefit is in terms of special buying opportunities since all the information resides in one location and the individual is taking a total company view. These days inventory management is being deployed as a process cutting across many associated functions. JIT concept. Discussed later. Supplier partnership : Many organizations have entered into a partnership approach with their customers for high value and critical items. Strong nurturing of relationship helps in keeping the inventory level at an optimum level since many non value adding processes like inquiry, evaluation gets eliminated. What are the key strategies to achieve efficient procurement Some of the Strategies, which will lead to efficient procurement, are Supplier Collaboration, Benchmarking, Procurement Outsourcing, and Reverse Auctions etc. A suitable performance measurement is to be established like Balance score card and it is to be continuously improved. Creatively thinking about procurement related aspects is required for targeting excellence in procurement will add value. Critically examine the JIT concept Initially known as the Toyota Production System Just-in-time (JIT) is defined in the APICS dictionary as "a philosophy of manufacturing based on planned elimination of all waste and on continuous improvement of productivity". It combines a paradigm shift in inventory management and a management approach to eliminate all kinds of waste including cost incurred on carrying excess inventory. In many auto-manufacturing unit certain material is supplied at the assembly line itself! JIT is applicable mainly in production of standard items through standard processes but lately this is finding relevance in industries having batch processes. The work is so organized that there is an even, balanced flow of materials throughout the entire production process. "To accomplish this, an attempt is made to reach the goals of driving all queues toward zero and achieving the ideal lot size of one unit" (Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano, 11th edition, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, referred to as "CJA") The JIT process employs a series of usually-visual signals, or Kanban, a pull system, in which the kanban is used to pull parts to the next production stage Successful implementation of JIT results in many benefits, which include reduced operating costs, higher throughput and quality, better delivery, flexibility and innovativeness. This also results in other gains like reductions in set-up times and batch sizes resulting into cost reduction. Successful JIT signifies cultural aspects like discipline, planning, partnership and Certain literature points to a few of the potential problems associated with JIT. There is a strong interdependence inbuilt in JIT concept. It can cause heavy losses when a link gets weakened under the impact of factors like strikes, change in external environment and disruption in supply line. What is the role of operation management Operations management focuses on systematically managing the processes to produce and distribute products and services at a higher efficiency level and it deploys tools, which are essentially giving deeper insight into the processes or their inter-relationship. Some of the popular OR activities in the organizations are product creation, development, production and distribution in association with resource optimization activities like procurement, inventory control, quality control, storage, logistics and evaluations. Operations management essentially is intensive study and analysis of processes References ( www.bambooweb.com/articles/p/r/Project_Management.html) www.projectmanagement.tas.gov.au/guidelines/pm6_2.shtml www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfmname=proj_manguide8 detailed planning Customer-aligned Inventory Strategies: Agility Maxims Richard J. Tersine University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA, John G. Wacker Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA http://www.managementhelp.org/ops_mgnt/ops_mgnt.htm#anchor1705482 Read More