INDUSTRIAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Industrial Project Management

Industrial Project Management

Generally, project management is distinguished from the general management of corporations by the mission-oriented nature of a project. A project organization will generally be terminated when the mission is accomplished. According to the Project Management Institute, the discipline of project management can be defined as follows: ''Project management is the art of directing and coordinating human and material resources throughout the life of a project by using modern management techniques to achieve predetermined objectives of scope, cost, time, quality and participation satisfaction''(Kerzner, 2009: 149-151).

PART A

Problem 1

A sound estimate starts with a work breakdown structure (WBS). A WBS is a list of tasks that, if completed, will produce the final product. The way the work is broken down dictates how it will be done. There are many ways to decompose a project into tasks. The project can be broken down by feature, by project phase (requirements tasks, design tasks, programming tasks, QA tasks, etc.), or by some combination of the two. Ideally, the WBS should reflect the way previous projects have been developed (Wysocki, 2011: 12).

Once the WBS is created, the team must create an estimate of the effort required to perform each task. The most accurate estimates are those that rely on prior experience. Team members should review previous project results and find how long similar tasks in previous projects took to complete. Sources of delays in the past should be taken into account when making current estimates.

The Wideband Delphi estimation method was developed in the 1940s at the Rand Corporation as a forecasting tool. It has since been adapted across many industries to estimate many kinds of tasks, ranging from statistical data collection results to sales and marketing forecasts. It has proven to be a very effective estimation tool, and it lends itself well to software projects (Shelly, 2011: 69). The Wideband Delphi estimation process is especially useful to a project manager because it produces several important elements of the project plan. The most important product is the set of estimates upon which the project schedule is built. In addition, the project team creates a work breakdown structure (WBS), which is a critical element of the plan. The team also generates a list of assumptions, which can be added to the vision and scope document. The discussion among the team during both the kick-off meeting and the estimation session is another important product of the Delphi process. This discussion typically uncovers many important (but previously unrecognized) project priorities, assumptions, and tasks.

The team is much more familiar with the work they are about to undertake after they complete the Wideband Delphi process. Wideband Delphi works because it requires the entire team to correct one another in a way that helps avoid errors and poor estimation (Sanghera, 2008: 45). While software estimation is certainly a skill that improves with experience, the most common problem with estimates is simply that the person making the estimate does not fully understand what it is that he is ...