Project Management and Total Quality Management

Project Management and Total Quality Management

Question.1

Introduction

As far as success of project management is concerned no matter how specialized a particular project may be, a project manager directly or indirectly has to take care of general management duties and approach to deal with successful management of team members and overall project. Research also suggests there must be an alignment of the project with that of business strategies and organization that fail to align, leads to 30 percent of project failure (Al Sudiri, 2011, pp. 1).

Discussion

A project has been defined as something that is temporary in nature is undertaken to create a certain product, service or result. The main difference between project manager and general manager is that the former has less span of control in comparison to the latter and general manager is involved in strategic decision making process with more span of control and power in their hands as they are looking after multiple teams while project manager is looking after single projects and team (Peisach & Kroecker, 2008, pp. 38). Project manager must have the specialized knowledge, skill, tools and techniques. When dealing with a particular project other managerial duties of handling the team members and taking important decision will become a natural part of the process and he will be expected to perform them successfully. Miller is of the viewpoint that many organizations fail to provide for a link between project management and business strategy or goals (Miller, 2002, pp. 35). Research suggests that majority of organizations do not consider the business and strat9egic objectives of organization when implementing the project and must concentrate on corporate strategy (Gray& Larson, 2003). Few authors suggest that the missing link between business strategy and project plan is project strategy. It has been further suggested that project manager must be involved in the process of strategy development.

Conclusion

The above mentioned discussion is evident of the fact that certain duties of both project managers and GMs are overlapping like planning, reporting, people management and thus project management is an important part of general management provided that he also has the necessary competence and skills to carry out the projects.

Question.2

Introduction

The project scope is the soul and gist of project management and development and it is extremely important to have a well planned and organized project scope that is realistic enough to deal with the complications and problems that arise in the way of project management and implementation.

Discussion

The sole purpose of scope of project is to define and include only those processes that will help in completion of the project at hand (Milosevic, 2006). The entire process of scope management can be divided into planning, defining, creation of WBS, verification and control. Planning of scope refers to the remaining stages of project like how it will be defined, verified and controlled. Additionally it will also contain important information with regards to the creation of work breakdown structure (WBS). Scope definition on the other hand refers to defining and developing ...