What Are the Core Principles of Any Project - Assignment Example

Task Question What are the core principles/characteristics of any project and why are they important? Before starting any there must be a project plan that is flexible and definitive, timeline and budget must be defined, all activities and responsibilities should be defined because this allow employees to do work effectively through guiding them that what to do. All people involved in project must know the deliverables, and how to get that deliverables. Project manager and other team members should be committed to the project. If project members and managers will be committed they will be able to work proactively and will complete work on deadline (Wysocki 2011). Question # 2: Explain how you would have defined the scope of this project. First the objective of the projects are essentials to define, then the goals of project will be stated clearly and communicated to the team members that are associated with the project, then tasks will be defined, after describing the task, resources required for the project are essential to define, the last two steps of project scope involve budgeting and scheduling (Dyal 2008). Question # 3: What difference would it have made if Penny Black had plotted out a full project Gantt chart and critical path? The critical path method could help penny in assisting scheduling and decision making. Penny could create efficiency, reduce uncertainty, and improve productivity through the help of critical path method. This can help in assess the earliest time by which the each activity can be completed. Through full project Gantt chart penny can evaluate the scheduling progress on the basis of individual task and whole project (Schwable 2013) Question # 4: What method(s) would you employ for cost management and why? Resource costing method is best to save the extra cost of utilizing resources; the second method is standard costing that helps in cost control, and the third method is activity based costing that determine the cost each activity required (Lewis 1995) Question # 5: How would you have assessed and managed the risks on this project. Before starting any project risk assessment is the first step, risk occurs due to lack of tools, information and qualified employees. All uncertainties will be assessed through risk assessment data sheet and risk assessment matrix. Then the action plan will be created after conducting SWOT analysis of project, insurance will be taken to transfer risk and constant monitoring will be conducted to ensure the risk free status of the project. Question # 6: What quality methods (project evaluation and control) are missing in this case study and which ones would you have imposed. There are multiple evaluation methods but no can be said best; project evaluation methods include qualitative method. The formative evaluation methods are essential to lead up the project that is missing in the case study. The goal based evaluation is missed in the project that is necessary for any project and give ideas to the team members and management that how should the work be done in order to attain the stated goals. This evaluation encounters the SMART targets achievement. Method that can be utilized in order to control the project is PERT, program evaluation review technique is a tool that is utilized for project planning and its control as well. Critical path method and Gantt chart both are used interchangeably, they just differ in the commutation of tasks time. The proper sequence of tasks can be visualized. Task 2 Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited Introduction: Grabbit and Scarper is a family owned business and company did partnering with Alan Scarper manufacturing in 1990. The annual turnover of the company was growing up to 50 million pound excellent in 2014. The director of human resource Sue Grabbit, hired the Penny Black as project manager to handle the new special project, Penny Black due to her lack of experience made several mistakes that turned the project into worst condition and required revision. The aim of this paper is to analyze the mistakes that have been made by the organization and Penny Black and to suggest that how these issues can be handled. Project Analysis A project is a set of planned tasks that are interrelated and require execution over a fixed time period and within particular cost and other different specified limitations. Project management has becom an integral part of all organizations (Jeffrey, 2009). In order to have success in project it is essential that project is defined clearly and what it will lead to as well. If one is not clear about the resources and time required for the project it will lead to failure and waste of time as resources and in order to be successful it is essential that the document of project definition is prepared. Project defining document involves multiple sections of information. This document clears the requirements vital to complete the project and the benefits and returns in result of successful completion. Project definition includes project objectives, scopes, and constraints, assumptions, reporting dependencies, estimates and tike scale. Background of the project discloses the current situation, legal changes required, explanation of causes that demand change, opportunities and other information that is required to implement the request. Objectives includes key success criteria that is required to be met, scope is the part of objective and is a description of range of activities that are required to perform during the project, constraints involve the counting and description of hurdles that will be faced during the project and make influence on project ( MTD Training). All these components are important to analyze before starting or managing any project and the first mistake that has been found in Grabbit and scraper & sons case is that they do not prepared the project defining documents that can provide the guidance to the team members. in order to run any project successfully or to perform the job effectively, it is essential that the work environment is comfortable, timely completion of tasks is important to the timely completion of project delay in each activity can lead to delay the overall project. It has been encountered that work environment plays huge role in making impact over the performance of project manager (Razak, et al 2009) and same happened with penny black as she made delay in tender documents due to the incorrect set-up of computer and the IT manager was not at the place to sort out the potential issues his careless behavior caused to trouble the penny and she had to spend excessive amount of time on searching out the relative information that resulted in delay and due to this reason she could not attend the daily staff meeting and had to relied on daily updates. Daily staff meetings has critical importance in project planning and allow manager to have an idea of progress and issues these meetings are considered standup meetings because these meetings are essential for the commitment of employees such staff meetings are essential to accomplish goals and push projects towards competition. Information sharing is critical factor for the success of any project and regular staff meetings help to serve this factor (Flex Study n.d). For the success of any project it is essential that a project manager must have expertise to manage the project and involve in broader boundaries of knowledge. The project manager is responsible to complete the project within given timeline and achieved goals and for this purpose several project managements tools and techniques are applied by for the clear explanation of goals of project, a project manager must have unique skills for the management of project because projects are temporary in nature and they have defined time and resources and a project manager is responsible to start-up and end the project with sufficient results. Project manager is responsible to create a team that is energized and goal focus. However, nothing was in part of penny black; even she was dependent on others for having information. Even after passing two months she was meeting with senior shift manager and asked him to provide knowledge about plant systems and operational issue. Operational management is a critical part of project management, it includes inventory management, material handling, production scheduling and control, and policies related equipment maintenance. In order to complete the project successfully operational management is essential factor but the major problem that penny had to face was the incorrect scheduling of resources and the reason of this insufficiency was the incorrect dependencies and the behavior of team members; team members were inconsistent. For example, senior ship manager did not have valuable knowledge of plant systems and operational issues, the only knowledgeable person related these issues was the site engineer Hammer who was out of the country for two months; he wrote a feasibility study but penny had not seen that either that was the mistake of Penny Black. If she had seen she may find any valuable information. For the management of the project it is essential that a project team must have related information or educated and qualifies people must be selected for this purpose. If qualified people are not involved in the project their inefficiencies will cause to delay in work that will result in additional cause that lead to loss. All these issues results in inappropriate management of project. The second issue occurred when penny ordered the cranes before shutting-off the section of plan that was creating issue in new build-up. That was a big mistake that was done by penny and that was the result of unplanned activities. Penny Black did not do any planning before making this decision. She must have applied a critical path method that could help her in managing the project. A critical path analysis ensures that a project manager or any other in the project cannot start some activities until other are finished (HNF 2014). If penny had applied this tool she must not had to face this problem because critical path help in analyzing the tasks that are essential to be carried out, prioritize tasks, shorter time required to complete task, resources that are required to complete project, sequence of activities, and activities’ timing and scheduling. However, the mistake of penny black indulged the Grabbit and Scraper & sons limited in a situation where they had to face huge costs because penny black could not send back the cranes and the whole process of shutting down the section of the plant was going to take another two week and it was expected that this time limit will exceed due to weather uncertainty (again lack of planning regarding location and time). However, the cost of each crane per day was £ 1000which means £ 3000 per day. Therefore, it is essential that risk assessment is done; risk management is a critical factor of project management (Hill 2007). Risk assessment is a careful examination of all such factors that can create hurdle in the completion of project such as certain events, economic conditions, and weather uncertainties (Kendrick 2009). Tools that can be utilized in order to evaluate risk involve SWOT analysis, risk assessment data sheet and risk assessment matrix. Checklist and database of the assessment of common risk could be used. If penny had used these tools (risk assessment matrix and risk assessment data sheet) then she was able to realized the impact on weather uncertainty on project because risk assessment matrix allows project manager to assess the factors that have major influence on project and risk assessment data sheet allows project managers to view the result of risk evaluation session. If penny Black was aware of such conditions she can manage the risk through contingency planning. When penny had talked with Kevin, she realized the mistake that she had made the order of wrong material that added up to more loss. The situation was getting worse and the major reason that was encountered is the poor team management. However, Penny Black gained the news that her mother is in hospital due to broken wrist result of fall; she got depressed and tried to contact the site manager, but she could not and she had to left the office without informing any responsible person. During such an important project, project members were not at the spot and was giving importance to other things as compare to project that was not acceptable behavior, employee were not engaged in their tasks and were not performing their role accurately that was a one that enhance the risk of the project. Communication is an essential factor that contributes more in the success of project and missing at Grabbit and scraper & sons limited. Employees were not motivated to do their work. The role of project management is not an easy task and one of the most challenging roles, a project manager must be adaptable and flexible, he or she must aware of the tactics thorough which the uncertain conditions can be handled, but Penny Black was not have any sufficient quality of performing the role of project manager. However, this thing should be kept in mind that project management is a game of a team no one can manage a project alone and successful completion of project is solely dependent upon the team’s ability of taking responsibility and accountability of the areas they have been charged with. However, at Grabbit and scraper & sons limited, no capability was visible to ensure the success of project. after a long time, when Penny Black had contact with the site engineer, Henry Hammer; she received the specification and feasibility study and after having the through view she realized that the rest of the material that had been ordered by her was not correct as well that created more anxiety. After listening the Penny Black, Henry realizing the seriousness of the situation and decided to came back in order to recover the project however, Penny was advised to make an apology to contractor and to ask them to retender the material according to the correct specification. When Penny Black contacted to contractors they all advised her that one of the compressor that is required for the project is made in Germany and the lead time of that compression was 3 month which mean the project is far delay against its targeted time resulted in cost maximization, waste of time and waste of resources. The project had turned in to failure and now to have to be revised completely. At the failure of the project company had lost the hundreds of thousands of pounds that all was the result on the inefficiency of the director of human resources that appointed an inexperienced new employee for a special project as a project manager and then did not pay any attention towards her training and development she could not provide any assistance for the handling of project and even not get acceptable support. By having looked at over the Grabbit and scraper & Son Limited case it has been clearly encountered that there were several mistakes that have been done from both sides. Sue Grabbit as a director of human resource had a responsibility to develop and lead the team. He was responsible to provide training to new employee; he was responsible for empowering and engaging employees despite this he left the new project manager, Penny Black without any assistance for the handling of such a special project. Director of human resource is responsible to utilize the project human resource in most effective and efficient manners. The most important factor that has been recognized here is that every project require a team leader that is responsible to plan, control and close the project, but Sue Grabbit did not give attention towards this issue, which means he did not clear the role and responsibilities to new project manager and over burden her. It is like a jock that when any one ask that who is the responsible of every project activity the answer is project manager, that is not true (Newell 2005). Penny Black was an inexperienced and new to the organization therefore, she could not handle the project and made several blunders that resulted in worst failure of project, therefore; she should be assessed by the plant manager, the role of plant manager was critical to project the project. Director of human resource should have trained her on performing her complex tasks and should have offer her at least the minimal direction over strategic task so company had not to face such failure and loss ( Hass, 2009). Conclusion: Project management is hard for any new one; it is teamwork and cannot be achieved alone. Project management requires effective communication, coordination, and engagement. All these qualities were missing in the project of Grabbit and Scraper & Sons Limited. Project manager is liable to report the plan manager during the project (Kerzner 2013) but Penny did not do that because she got overwhelmed due to the amount of work. After looking into the case it has been suggested that before starting any project managers must do the planning of the project and should assess the risk associated with the project that will enable project manager to control and mitigate risk. risk management process includes identify the risk, analyzed the risk factors, mitigate and prepare the contingency plan, allocate resources, monitor and control the risk on constant basis (Molenaar, Anderson & Schexnayder 2010) References: Bartlett, J, 2004, Project Risk Analysis and Management Guide, APM Publishing Limited. 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