The Effective Management of Projects - Case Study Example

? Project Management The management of projects has been used as a means through which organizations can be able to attract the best talent to seek jobs within it. With some of the best people working on a project, not only will such an organization be able to offer excellent services, but its reputation is likely to grow, since the media today has become a means through which news travels fast. When a manager is working on a project, he should ensure that he acquires good staff as this can be a means through which the stakeholders of the organization can gain more confidence in it. Because the efficient management of projects is one of the best means through which an organization can be successful, most companies and other institutions go to out of their way to acquire the most competent people when they need to acquire people in to work in their projects. In addition, the acquisition of the best and most competent people to manage projects ensures that the stakeholders of the organization stay up to date with the current knowledge about it as well as ensuring that they take advantage of all offers that the organization has to give, hence giving the organization a competitive edge over other’s. The hiring of competent staff ensures that an organization is able to make adjustments quickly, according to the changes in the marketing scene in the world and it does this for the purpose of assisting its stakeholders keep up to speed of things so that they do not lose any opportunities if there are any unexpected changes. Having competent people managing an organization’s projects provides a swift means through which individuals can easily be able to make connections with people and resources which they have need of in order receive the services they want from the organization. It has been stated that the acquisition of competent managers for projects is one of the reasons why many organizations in the world today have become successful and are able to retain this success. One only has to log onto the internet to see the scale of success that many companies have been able to acquire and all of this due to competent project management that has been prevalent within them (Mauro, Plinio, Gilmar and Mamerto, 2012). It has been found that competent management is a means through which an organization can be able to ensure that it does not face any damaging scandals because of mismanagement (Baird and Riggins, 2012). While previously it was a subject which was not taken based on merit, the selection of project managers has now developed into a massive undertaking which has created the need to have competence in working on projects, because to not do so would be to doom the project or the organization to failure, like the case of Gary Allison in the Orion Shield project. As the years have progressed, project management is moving from being a profession where individuals can survive without a lack of skills to one where there is plenty of opportunity for those who take a direct hand and are dedicated to it (Cruceru, 2012). When managing a project, managers have to be able to ensure that they have complete control of the project, otherwise, there is likely to be failures due to incompetence. In addition, project managers should adopt a strategy that is so well done it touches the emotions of those who witness it and as long as more people continue to the activities being done within the project, then the influence of this project is likely to be immense. It has become common knowledge that effective project management is essential and this belief has developed to such an extent that many organizations have actually come to believe that it is the solution to the diverse problems that they have been experiencing with their own projects. More organizations than ever today are making a bid to ensure that they not only have competent managers, but also that their projects are done in the most professional way possible. The lack of professionalism has created a situation where organizations running projects tend to lose focus on alternative management strategies since their sole focus is often in the adoption of only one strategy which tends not to work effectively (Du, Johnson and Keil, 2004). To counter this, organizations are advised to do their best to not only focus on one management strategy, but also ensuring that they do their best to work other strategies into the project, so that only the best results can be achieved. If such strategies are adopted, then it is possible that if one fails, then others will be in place to recover any loses that are encountered. It can be said that other project management strategies, such as motivating the employees, hiring only the best people to work within it, and ensuring that the best research has been conducted, will make the project successful (Ludovic-Alexandre and Marle, 2008). The traditional means of project management, where the manager has absolute control, is still the best way to make a project successful. Such failures as Gary Allison’s management of the Orion Shield project has brought a lot of change in the way people deal with other projects because competence has come to be valued above anything else (“Innovative heat shield…” 2010. Technological growth has led to the fostering of the growth of countless management apparatus and services that help people administer their projects in the most competent way possible so that these projects can be a success. The development of these apparatus has ensured that individual project managers can be able to work towards the development of strategies which will ensure that the projects they are managing become successful and that all their goals are achieved. Furthermore, there is a discussion of the best practices to help take the management of projects to the next level by combining the ease of communication between the project managers and their subordinates as well as the implementation of the strategies needed to make the projects achieve their objectives (Barber and Warn, 2005). Successful communication includes content that is relevant and interesting not only to the staff dealing with the project, but also for those involved with its funding. This ensures that there is an offering of important information or advice and provides a chance to give a response. By using various forms of assessment, the organization can be able to collect direct responses from their staff and this can influence the way the project is handled in a diverse number of ways. It has become necessary for those organizations which intend to run project to ensure that they have the most competent staff available so that the said projects can be managed well. Good and experienced leaders in the management of similar projects should be hired so that the project not only has an experienced hand working on it but also to ensure that only the most capable and well tested strategies are adopted to make the project a success. There can be no room for hesitation on the part of the leader because if such a thing happens, then there is likely to be a massive failure of the project that he or she is handling. The strength of any project relies heavily on the ability of the project manager to ensure that all the work that is conducted within it is done constructively so that only the best results can be achieved. This is the only way through which projects can be successfully managed to ensure that there are no incompetent decisions based on a lack of knowledge by the project manager. References Baird, A., & Riggins, F. J. (2012). Planning and sprinting: Use of a hybrid project management methodology within a CIS capstone course. Journal of Information Systems Education, 23(3), 243-257. Barber, E., & Warn, J. (2005). Leadership in project management: From firefighter to firelighter. Management Decision,43(7), 1032-1039. Cruceru, A. (2012). PRESENT STATUS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE ORGANIZATIONS (IMMs) AS REPORTED TO THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF THE NEW ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT. Romanian Economic and Business Review, 7(1), 24-32. Du, S. M., Johnson, R. D., & Keil, M. (2004). Project management courses in IS graduate programs: What is being taught?Journal of Information Systems Education, 15(2), 181-187. Innovative heat shield structure completed for Orion. (2010). JOM, 62(4), 7. Ludovic-Alexandre Vidal, & Marle, F. (2008). Understanding project complexity: Implications on project management. Kybernetes, 37(8), 1094-1110. Mauro, M. L., Plinio, C. I., Gilmar, J. D., & Mamerto, G. G. (2012). Project management in research and development. Revista De Gestao e Projetos, 3(3), 109 Read More