Principles of Project Management - Essay Example

Project Organisation Any project cannot be described as an overnight phenomenon because establishing, planning and implementing actions need attention and care. It requires a complex process of organization and management to give birth to its possibility. It may indeed seem intimidating and demanding for the magnitude of a manager’s responsibility and the grave of the organizer’s duty is parallel to the project scale (Meredith and Mantel 2011). A project must always have a definite organisational structure set in the beginning. This identifies the roles and responsibilities, relationships, accountability, and authority of each team member and advocates clarity on management within an agency (Department of Business Innovation and Skills 2010). There are several options for organisational structure to be utilised. It can be functionally based, project based, or matrix based. In a functional organisation, staffs from the main organisation are the ones that fill the functional positions in a project for example, the people handling the Finance and Accounting will come from the Finance and Accounting department of the organisation. This type provides clear authority and designation but may lack on the specific needs of a project. The second organisational structure, the project based, is done for huge projects involving a large number of people in a longer period of time. Staffs are accumulated and several functional departments are created from within which promotes clear authority and clear focus. The downside is the duplication of functions among the departments for instance that the project may have a Finance department duplicating the central Finance department. Finally, the matrix based upholds expertise and maximization of competencies within an organization. Here, staffs with required expertise report on their specific department while doing tasks and reporting on one or several projects that need their skill. The major disadvantage is the indistinct authority that may occur since one person may report to several project managers (Project Organisation Types, 2009). Selection of the organisational structure would depend on the capacity of the organisation, the project scale and the time allotted for its completion. In establishing an organisational structure, the Projects in Controlled Environments or PRINCE2 model may be utilised as basis. Figure 1. PRINCE2 Model of Organisational Structure (Department of Business Innovation and Skills 2010). The model, as shown, depicts specific authority and relationship among the project team members. The Senior Responsible Owner or SRO is the main owner or chair of the project which requires and active participation and not just a figurehead role in representing the project team. He must be able to provide leadership and guidance in the Project Board and Project Managers. Parts of their role are the assurance of the key stakeholder’s commitment and the sustenance of necessary funds. His task also involves receiving and acting on regular reports from Project Managers and relaying this briefings to the senior stakeholders to give status updates on the project. As head of the project, he chairs the meetings with the Project Board and ascertains the competitiveness of its members (Department of Business Innovation and Skills 2010). Large scale projects requiring several departments may deliver the need for Project Board. Their responsibilities involve decision making throughout the project completion, set direction and initiate a plan for the project, create an environment promoting success of completion of the plan, ensure the availability of necessary and appropriate resources, and guide the Project Manager in leading the project realisation. Success in the project’s success also concerns the Project Board and with this at stake, Project Assurance may be created (Department of Business Innovation and Skills 2010). Project Assurance gathers relevant updates and reports from the Project Managers and ensures that each step accomplished is in congruence with the plan created by the Project Board. They are also in charge with continuous assessment of the project’s progress, assurance that a good project management is followed, evaluate the member’s performance and suggest for improvements. This responsibility can be delegated to one or more members of the board as the mentioned roles are usually initiated on a part-time basis (Department of Business Innovation and Skills 2010). Project Managers are the ones in direct contact with team members and has the most active role in accomplishment of the project. They are expected to prepare the project plan, present it to the Project Board and be ready to submit its required revisions for further approval. The close monitoring of the progress of project is also one of their many roles together with dealing with actual and potential ordeals encountered in the achievement of the project. Moreover, they are accountable in regular reporting of progress, and taking advice or directions, from the SRO and Project Board. They are required to create liaison with Project Assurance members to promote proper evaluation and monitoring (Department of Business Innovation and Skills 2010). Planning for human resources and requirements involves careful identification of available skills and the project capacity. Creating a team differs from the organisational structure to be utilised. Matrix and functional based organisations require only pulling out staff from available departments to form a project team while a project based organisation would require a new set which may be tedious task for project heads yet can be fulfilling once the team is completed with competent staff (Boxall and Purcell 2003). In the implementation stage, control and coordination is crucial. Coordination amongst the member of the organization is met through regular reporting and good communication skill (Williams 2008). As previously discussed, monitoring and control are the primary tasks of Project Managers and Project Assurance respectively (Department of Business Innovation and Skills 2010) and a good liaison between them guarantees ample management and achievement of set objectives. Project management and organisation is a task that cannot be achieved overnight but requires ample time of planning and execution among several experts for the achievement of goal that the stakeholders set. It required extensive and deep understanding of the fundamentals of management. In general, success of every project lies within its people and how they collaborate and coordinate with each other to act as one in fulfilling their purpose. Works Cited Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2003) Strategy and Human Resource Management. Industrial and Labour Relations Review, 57 (1). Department of Business Innovation and Skills. (2010) Guidelines for Managing Projects [Internet]. United Kingdom, BIS. Available from: [Accessed 7 July 2012]. Meredith, J. and Mantel, S. (2011) Project Management: A Managerial Approach. 8th ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., United States of America. Project Organization Types. (2009) [Internet], Construction Management Guide. Available from < http://www.cmguide.org/archives/319> [Accessed 7 July 2012]. Williams, M. (2008) Principles of Project Management. Work Smarter. [Internet], March 26. Available from [Accessed 7 July 2012]. Read More