PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Management



Project Management

This paper discusses the meaning of Project Management as discussed by Knod and Schonberger in chapter 17 of our Operations Management text book. "Projects are large-scale, typically expensive, one of a kind endeavor that may require months or years to complete and involve major portions of an organization's resources. Project manager is a manager or management team having responsibility for a project, not a function. Various project managers' types include project manager, commodity manager, project coordinator, project engineer, and brand manager, each having a different degree of authority over a project.

Today, project management is in demand, but the emphasis falls more on strategic and environmental implications rather than on the tools of project management. Projects are represented by a work breakdown structure, which may be converted into a network showing relationships among projects activities. Project sequence networks may be summarized into key events or milestone diagrams for senior management review. Program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and critical path method (CPM) are two important tools managers use. PERT and CPM group activities into four phases: project planning and sequencing, time estimating and analysis, project scheduling, and reporting and updating. A successful Project Manager must simultaneously manage the four basic elements of a project: resources, time, money, and most importantly, scope. To excel at this position an individual must have great communication and interpersonal skills, attention to detail, and strong analytical skills. In conclusion, a project manger's effectiveness or lack of is the determining factor as to whether a project will complete successfully. The following is a summary of what I found in an paper about project management.

The paper "Project Management 101" by F. John Reh is a broad overview model of all the aspects of projects management. Reh says,"A successful project manager (PM) must simultaneously manage the four basic elements of a project: resources, time, money, and most importantly, scope". Reh believes that the scope is more important than the other three basic elements. The project scope is the definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish and the budget (of time and money) that has been created to achieve these objectives. It is absolutely imperative that any change to the scope of the project have a matching change in budget, either time or resources.

A successful PM most effectively manages the resources assigned to the project. This includes the labor hours of the all employees or members on the project team. It also includes managing any labor subcontracts. The project manager must also manage the equipment used for the project and the material needed by the people and equipment assigned to the project. Reh proclaims, "managing the people resources means having the right people, with the right skills and the proper tools, in the right quantity at the right time'. The PM must motivate the project team to adopt the goal and methods to achieve them.

The successful PM must have exceptional time management skills, Project Managers who succeed in meeting their project schedule have a good ...