PROJECT SUCCESS

Project success

Project success

Introduction

In today's rapidly changing business environment, success of any project or organization lies in the ability of management to effectively communicate with their employees, lead all small and large teams, and manage fruitful negotiations as well as conflicts. It is a fact that, conflicts can be seen in any business unit, division or at organizational as well as individual levels. These conflicts occur due to various reasons including absence of common values and goals, difference in knowledge of employees, poor training and lacking in experience (Black, 2008).

In addition, poor communication, weak interpersonal skills, excess of stress and fear also play a major role in developing conflicts in the internal environment of organization. Further, conflicts affect organization's development as well as employees' performances. The resolution of conflicts is very important for the growth and success of any organization and project (Black, 2008).

The project management is an important discipline that takes into account different steps taken different perspectives of the management that enhance the efficiency of the managers and makes them more effective at their work. There are different aspects of the project management that has been proved to be very useful for the managers for performing their daily functions of the management at their work. Project management practices started to emerge in the 1950s. The ultimate goal of project management was implementing projects in the optimal timeframe, while considering the triple constraints of time, cost, and project scope.

Initiation of Project Management

The literature on the project management practice is rich and controversial in term of the project constraints and best practices. The triple constraints principle in project management, presented in the previous section, is still valid today. The main objective of any project is the improvements in time, cost, and quality. Recently project management practice was considered a strategic function. In his study about project success, Cicmil (1997) argued that success requires more than just the proper scheduling and budgeting.

If organizations want to implement successful projects they should consider the project management function as a critical and strategic business function in the organization. Project management practice was defined further with the establishment of PMI. Based on the PMI (2007b) this organization was established in 1969 and introduced the standards for project management and practices in the United States. Today the PMI has over 240,000 members who together pursue the advancement of the project management field.

The PMI (2005a) stated that to enable this collaboration PMI has created local chapters and special interest groups to allow the members to network together based on their industries, locations, or interests. The PMI started the PMP certification program in 1984 which grants a special certification to project managers who have adequate professional experience in the field. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide was also created by the PMI. This guide serves as the foundation of project management framework and the different knowledge areas: integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communications, risk, and procurement ...