Project Management

Project Management

Question No. 1

The demands on the business world are presently growing at a rapid rate. The booming population, the explosive developments in technology, and the commonality of corporate globalization have made the business world quite competitive. In order to remain competitive, businesses have begun to evaluate the effectiveness of their current procedures in delivering their goods and/or services without increasing prices exponentially or decreasing the manpower necessary to produce the goods and sacrificing profitability. Executives have found that the best possible technique to resolve these issues is through project management.

Before thoroughly understanding project management, it would be beneficial to understand just exactly what a project is and what it entails. The definition of a project is a task that has a specific desired outcome, with specific start and end dates. It is usually accompanied with budget restraints and a definition of resources needed to complete the project. The text defines a project as “any series of activities and tasks that have a specific objective to be completed within any specifications, have defined start and end dates, have funding limits (if applicable), consume human and nonhuman resources, and are multifunctional”. (Kerzner, 2006) The objective of a project is to produce a deliverable, a tangible result.

Question No. 2

In order for me as a project manager to maintain uniformity and control over the project, the project is broken down into four basic life-cycle phases. The first phase is Initiation, which involves brainstorming, researching, conducting a feasibility study, appointing a team, and defining the project. The purpose of the feasibility study in the Initiation phase is to determine how to develop the project plan, assist in estimating the amount of time it will take to complete certain project tasks and complete the project in its entirety, staff and other resources required, and the risks involved in investing in the project. The results of the feasibility study may determine whether or not management will approve the funding for the project and allow it to continue.

The second phase of the project life-cycle is Planning. Planning involves creating a project plan, defining the resources needed to complete the project, creating a budget, and creating a plan to account for any risks that may be encountered. The Scope of Work is a document that will entail all of the essential information need for the Planning phase; it must be completed and presented in the Initiation phase. Method123 Project Management Methodology (MPMM) is a project management company located in La Habra, CA that has found success with the following methodology and continues to grow rapidly. They have been in business for almost a decade, have over 45,000 customers in 200 countries. According to MPMM, there are 10 key steps to creating a detailed Planning phase. Those 10 key steps are the creation of each of the following plans: project, resource, financial, quality, risk, plan, communications, procurement, contract suppliers and perform phase review. Project management methodology is quite expansive compared to the method outlined in the text (Kerzner, 2006), ...