Revisions are needed on the paper I submitted for school. I have uploaded a file titled default.pdf which explains. Any section that scored less than a 3 needs to be revised. Please read teachers comments. Aspects B3, B5, C2 - C2f, D1 and D2 require addre
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PROJECTMANAGEMENT.docPROJECT MANAGEMENT 2
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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Summary of the portfolio
Effective project management is continuing to be acknowledged as an important and most valuable tool both as an organization approach or a communication tool (Nicholas & Steyn 2008 77). However, most organizations are believed to be more reluctant in examining some of the reasons why so many projects end up failing and some of the lessons that can be adopted from the evaluation process so as to establish ways of preventing some of this challenges from recurring in the organization’s future. Additionally. Some disciplines of integration management do not necessary require an individual to comprehend all the stages and phases involved in all the methodologies, but it is important that one needs to comprehend the basic principles that revolve around PRINCE2 methodology since it is the most commonly employed tool in European Industries (Nicholas & Steyn 2008 80).Therefore, this portfolio will provide an overview of PRINCE2 methodology explaining some of the stages involves in this methodology as well as the importance attached to each phase. Moreover, five knowledge areas of PMBOK methodology will be examined coupled with their importance in project management. Finally, this portfolio will conclude by examining a real engineering project, its features, limitations, and advantages.
Contents
4 1.1 Stages of prince2 methodology
5 1.1.1 Stakeholder Analysis and Business Case
12 3.1 Advantages of managing a project
13 3.2 Limitation of the project
15 References
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1.0 ANALYSIS OF PRINCE 2
Prince 2 is universally accepted as a project methodology that is standardized in UK and Europe and is the most adopted methodology in most UK government commissioned projects. Additionally, it provides best practice as public domain in guidance on how best a project can be managed (Nicholas & Steyn 2008 79). It is demarcated into stages.
1.1 Stages of prince2 methodology
• Starting up the project: this phase occurs only once, and it evaluates and establishes the business case (Nicholas & Steyn 2008 77).
• Directing the project: In this stage, formal business structures will be needed throughout the entire project life encompassing the project manager and the project board as well hence the continuous communication between the entire project and the organization is required through the entire project process.
• Initiating the project: this stage is acknowledged as a phase that identifies how the project is going to be managed such that the PID-Project Initiation Document will be employed in forming terms of reference and contracts for the entire project.
• Planning: any plans that revolve around the deliverables of the project are produced continuously through the entire project lifecycle as well as the activity which ensures that the project possesses a continuous approach (Kerzner, 2009 50).
• Controlling: it involves the establishment of documents that assist in managing the everyday operations, and it encompasses quality assurance and change control in an iterative process.
• Monitoring stage: this stage acknowledges the significance of acquiring feedback and in the process, take the necessary action based on the feedback hence the authorization from the ongoing Project Board is needed.
• Closing: In this stage, it is accepted that the time allocated for any particular project is finite, and there is always a requirement to implement a sign off procedure by the project client acknowledging that the objectives of the project have been satisfied.
It is important to note that, none of the project activities stated above are more significant than the other. However, they both illustrate the process or rather how the project can be classified as a single flow which requires an element of collaborative relationships between the project entities (Nicholas & Steyn 2008 77). Additionally, some of the issues that are explained and addressed in this methodology revolve around: Stakeholder Analysis and the Business Case, Organization, Planning, Risk Management, Control, and Quality Management,
1.1.1 Stakeholder Analysis and Business Case
It is universally known that the significance of the business case in any project cannot be undervalued owing to the fact that this is the phase that offers an organization a platform and an opportunity to analyze and evaluate the demand for the project and examine its anticipated contributions to the strategic business objectives (Nicholas & Steyn 2008 77).Additionally, the business case is employed in analyzing the management approval and commitment for investment in the business project change. In this case, the Board of the project not only establishes the business case for the new change project but it also owns it since they are the ones responsible for assessing the project desirability and its impact on the performance of the business. Moreover, the managers of the project for change are charged with ensuring that information is provided to the project board so as to enable them to examine and evaluate the project for change as far as economic, social, operational feasibility and technical factors are concerned (Smith 2002, 33).Therefore, the business case identifies the business need, assurance of realizable and realistic benefits, intangible and tangible costs as well as the project customer.
1.1.2 Organization
In this case, after the identification of the business case as well as the deliverables of ownership, there is also the need to establish a formal process of structuring the responsibilities and the roles of the individuals involved in the project. In so doing, it helps in the enforcement of project commitment and involvement of the project senior managers, suppliers, IT staff and the project users (Smith 2002, 33).Prince2 aims at solving the dilemma involved in the fact that the project manager is accountable for the failure of the project and the board has the authority but they cannot be held accountable for the project, by postulating that the Board of the project can be held accountable for the project since they own it hence they will be in apposition to offer support to the manager of the project in a more effective manner (Nicholas & Steyn 2008 79).
1.1.3 Risk management
In this methodology, it is accepted that the project success is reliant on the ability of the members involved in it to employ their business knowledge and technical capability in evaluating and controlling risks. In other words, PRINCE2 methodology requires that the project risks be evaluate based their consequences of occurrence. For instance, the failure of a primary project suppliers or occurrence of uncertainties might impact the project negatively concerning costs, project quality. Therefore, in this case, if the project experiences such uncertainties then the project will have no other wise but to look for another substitute supplier hence issues of quality and costs may have to be compromised to keep the project running.
1.1.4 Quality
To improve the estimating, reporting and allocation of resources involved in the project by employing some management tools such as Computer Aided Software Engineering.
1.1.5 Planning
PRINCE2 methodology emphasizes on planning because planning occurs at all project stages because it is an iterative process. Additionally, this plans always require commitment and approval from the project organization’s appropriate levels (Kerzner, 2009 47). Therefore, it is important that the methodology offers an appropriate framework for maintaining and preparing appropriate plans at each stage. Besides, the adopted methodology must be better placed to identify and examine plans at each lifecycle stage. In this stage, there are some documents which relate to the project as a whole as well as specific project activities or even the names and portfolios of members.
1.1.6 Control
PRINCE2 acknowledges that, if there are no clear project plans, it is very challenging to control the project since there are no tangible criteria against which an individual can benchmark the progress of the project and in the process take the required actions to straighten the project (Chemuturi & Cagley 2010 67). In other words, control and planning are closely interlinked.PRINCE2 ensures that there is a greater degree of control to be realized through cost and resource plans as well as the requirement to hold the business case viability.
1.1.7 Conclusion
It is accepted that, by applying PRINCE2 aspects, it is easy to establish a workable methodology that can be employed in the modern business environment. Additionally, it tries to make the project management process more standardized by providing standard documents like project quality plans, and risk logs.
2.0 PMBOK knowledge areas
2.1 Integration Management
It revolves around plan execution, plan development as well as a process of integrated change control. In other words, integration managing is a range of process that is needed in seeing to it that all the project elements are coordinated successfully (Chemuturi & Cagley 2010 67). Therefore, as the project scope evolves, integration management assess the project objectives and helps in the provision of alternatives needed to meet the Stakeholders project expectations.
2.2 Risk management
In any project, it is fundamental that the project manager is competent and knowledge in matters revolving around risk management and mitigation (Chemuturi & Cagley 2010 66). Additionally, this practice is very significant in projects because it helps in identification, analyzing controlling and planning of any factors and resources that might at any one point affect the progress of the project in a dangerous manner and the process put the project end users and the team at risk.
2.3 Scope Management
Scope, in this case, includes the process of collating all the data and information required to start the project as well as any features that are needed by the project to achieve the objectives and requirements of the project (Smith 2002, 33). Additionally, it encompasses proper planning and identification of the project participant. In this case, successful projects achieve this because they strive to meet resource allowances and strict deadlines, and scope management has the potential to affect the project detrimentally if it is not managed appropriately (Chemuturi & Cagley 2010 67).
2.4 Cost Management
These areas possess Earned Value Management that encompasses four techniques which make it a primary technique in managing costs (Smith 2002, 33). Additionally, it is important that a project manager can exercise effective management of costs by budgeting, estimating, managing, funding and controlling costs to remain within the budget that was approved.
2.5 Quality management
It is accepted that a project is not appropriate is it does not meet the demand and the needs of the sponsor as well as the expected deliverables (Kerzner, 2009 50). Therefore, it is important that an organization establishes appropriate measures of determining responsibilities, quality policies as well as project objectives which will enable it to meet the project specifications and original needs.
3.0 Managing and project
Managing construction projects are acknowledged as one of the ancient and most respected mankind accomplishments. For instance, the construction of ancient Egyptian pyramids is one of the project management activities that happened initially, but the expertise and skill employed in managing this project are ignored. In other words, the contribution that the skills and knowledge of project management are greatly despised and poorly known. The Probability of connection failure that occurred during the NORTHRIDGE earthquake in Los Angeles caused devastating effects to buildings and life. One of the most affected buildings such as the Warner Building Triangle is believed to have adhered to the construction design that was mostly used at that time, but not for the foreseeable future. This event clearly highlights some of the popular deficiencies in limitations in the modern design codes which clearly indicated that building code alone cannot act as earthquake proof in some designs (Hedeman Van & Fredriksz, 2010, 103).
Simpson Gumphertz and Heger with some assistance form Engineering Consulting firms were requested to evaluate the performance of the building in the course of the earthquake. From this point, it can be noted that a project is any new plan, structure, system, process or software whether small or large or the renewal, refurbishing replacement or removal of an already existing project. In the modern era of engineering, project managers have experienced the demands of increasing project complexity as far as product sophistication, the technical challenge of organizational change (Smith 2002, 29).Additionally, they were required to analyze how the impairment of BLUE TRIANGLE building as well as the structural safety through the establishment of a model of the same building, estimating the capacity connections as well as estimating ground motion characteristics. In this case, it is clear that one project can simply be related to the previous project with only minor details differentiation between the two projects so as it may be able to meet the market demands. Differences in projects may extend to the quality of the product, the novelty in the process, production system or in the structures or equipment forming the system.
The final results of this engineering project established that there was some probability level of critical fracture within the buildings special moment framing. Therefore, this provided a precedent for construction and building engineering learning.
In engineering, project management is believed to revolve around management of change but more explicitly about planned change (Kerzner 2009. 55). In this case, the change is directed towards the establishment of a unique functioning system that can be employed in establishing the right structural model that can be put in place to curb devastating effects in case of natural disasters like Earthquakes right from the initial concept. Additionally, it directs all the project elements required to realize the stakeholders and project objectives and those that may as well try to prevent the development of the project. Therefore, it is important that whenever an individual wants to manage projects, they must look ahead at the risks and the needs, effectively communicate the priorities and loans, assess trends and progress and be able to anticipate problems, get value for investment and quality, re-configure the project plans so that they may fit into the needs and the requirements of the project objectives.
The demands of a project are acknowledged to depend on the complexity, urgency, size, novelty and the importance of the project (Smith 2002, 30). In this case, the projected demand arose due to the devastating effects caused by buildings and lives in Northridge Los Angeles. Additionally, the project needs are also extensive where projects are competing for the same resources and are independent. However, in this case, the aim of this project was to try and highlight some of the deficiencies that are prevalent in the modern engineering building construction projects. Moreover, each and every engineering project has a startup process and an ending process thus they have a lifecycle that they must go through. In this case, the project commenced by establishing the design of the project and ended up by postulating results that might be important in improving the basis for engineering and building construction learning. It is universally accepted that the scale and nature of each activity project, change at each project phase since each phase marks a change in complexity, speed, and nature of the resources and activities employed (Chemuturi & Cagley 2010 68). Furthermore, different terminologies are chosen to represent different aspects of different industries but can all be related to a similar project management methodology as shown below.
Project lifecycle diagram: source web images https://www.google.com/search?q=project+life+cycle+diagram&biw=1366&bih=657&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjHu
The time taken between project activities and stages vary depending on the type of the engineering project. Additionally, some stages may at times overlap (Nicholas, & Steyn 2008 45)
3.1 Advantages of managing a project
Being a project that was performed with the help of engineering advisory committee, it was clear that Simpson and Heger in conjunction with Structural Masters of Engineering Group were able to go through the entire process without government interference and political influence. Additionally, in this project, the client was able to provide feedback as the project progressed and this helped in strengthening the project whenever there seemed to be little misunderstandings between the project team. Moreover, the project participants and team members in this project are the project nucleus and always tried working as a main cohesive order to complete all the project aspects from its initialization stage until its completion stage (Smith 2002, 35). The project was completed on time hence increasing the satisfaction of the client since the project was timely and according to the stipulated budget. By achieving the objective of the study through the established results, this project provided an opportunity for its team members to possess a continuous and improved development and growth. Besides, since it was concluded successfully, it made the team members to develop a feeling of accomplishments which helps them grow into a more effective and essential team (Chemuturi & Cagley 2010 67). Due to the realization of the project objectives, it is universally acknowledged that the project members will develop into a more oiled team hence making more opportunities to open up for the project and much more similar projects shortly.
3.2 Limitation of the project
The costs overhead incurred that were incurred in this project were quite high such that some of the budgeted activities like follow-up activities were excluded from the budget to try and cut on costs. In other words, the cost involved in hiring Simpson and Heger, The Structural Engineering Group and other consulting activities from the Engineering Advisory Company, can be seen to have been a challenging aspect of this project most especially given the fact that most of the buildings in Los Angeles were affected by the Northridge earthquake in a devastating manner (Kerzner 2009 58). Additionally, the level and cost incurred in developing communication facilities during the project most especially given the fact that an Engineering advisory committee was added into the project budget (Smith 2002, 33). Moreover, obsession by project managers as witnessed in other engineering projects is becoming one of the primary challenges in most projects hence making for an environment that is stressful for all the members involved in the project. In this case, Simpson and Heger could have hindered the progress of the project by becoming to precise and too rigid in the project planning process (Chemuturi & Cagley 2010 67). Another notable limiting factor in this engineering project evolves around technical non-creativity of project managers such that they set strict and precise deadlines hence forcing the project team members to operate within the project parameters.
References
Chemuturi, M., & Cagley, T. M. (2010). Mastering software project management: Best practices, tools and techniques. Ft. Lauderdale, FL: J. Ross Pub.
Hedeman, B., Van, H. G. V., & Fredriksz, H. (2010). Project Management: Based on PRINCE2 2009 Edition. Zaltbommel: Van Haren Pub.
Kerzner, H. (2009). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2008). Project management for business, engineering, and technology: Principles and practice. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann.
Smith, N. J. (2002). Engineering project management. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science.
