PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND ITS CRITICAL FACTORS

Title: PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND ITS CRITICAL FACTORS

Team D BA631-90

Campbellsville University

Date of Submission: 04/14/2019

Professor: Dr. Fred Rose

Abstract

The outline explains the critical success factors that influence the project success/failure and its impact on the Organization. Critical success factors have another name which is Key results areas (KRAs) refers to all the tasks that must be completed in order to achieve the project goals. There are many strategies in the project management which can be implemented to most of the projects. The project manager should find out the critical factors in the early stages of the project which will help for the project success. Applying the appropriate strategies to the project and implementing them will give better results to the organizations.

Introduction

Project managers make all efforts to complete the project successfully but in real the success rate of the projects is very rare. According to the PMI research, across all industries, the average percentage of projects that are deemed failures is 14 percent; the average for IT projects deemed failures in 2016 also is 14 percent, the research revealed. Why the projects are not becoming successful? What are the reasons that are making the project fail? What are the factors that are influencing the projects lead to failure/ successful? To determine all these issues the project managers, must jolt down the points all the factors that lead the project success and failure.

Success Factors:

The project completion relies on the success factors and must be implemented on time. According to Matilda Alexandrova &Liliana Ivanova the key success factors are mentioned below:

Team- Resources: Here team resources are referred to the team members, technologies/infrastructure, budget and time. Every task in the list must have resources allocated to it. Before the project starts the PM need to know the availability of the resources. Based on the availability of the resources in the project the planning (such as when, how these resources can be utilized in the project) must be done. Once the availability of the resources is found then the next step is estimation.

Top management –support: Top Management is one of the important variables for determining success factor. The top management need to motivate all the resources and help them in all ways to achieve their goals. For the past fifteen years, strategy researchers and consultants have been preoccupied by a quest for techniques and tools that top managers can reliable use to improve their firm’s performance. Many such attempts have fallen flat when tried in real competitive arenas. Top Management leadership skills also play a vital role in success of the project.

Manager-Coordination: Manager coordination is one of the important variables as it impacts the success of the project’s many factors related to the competencies of project managers and team members have been proposed for the successful completion of projects. These factors not only affect project performance, but they also have an impact on client satisfaction and project acceptance (Procaccino and Verner 2006). Pinto and Slevin (1989) demonstrated the importance of selecting project managers who possess the necessary technical and administrative skills for successful project completion. The project manager’s competence becomes most critical during the planning and termination stages (Zwikaeland Globerson 2006). The competence of the team members is also found to be a critical factor throughout the project cycle (Puthamont and Chareonngam 2007). Similarly, well-established communication channels between the project manager, the organization and the client are necessary for the acceptance of the project outcome by the client. Thamhain (2004) conducted a field study to examine the influences of the project environment on team performance and resulting project performance. He found a positive relationship between team involvement and performance especially in complex project environments.

Goals-Targeted procedure: Goals are among important variables in measuring success factors. Goals often involve completing certain part of project within specific timeline. We need to move with targeted approach of achieving things.

Goals can be further divided into:

1. Be a good communicator.

2.Control Budget and scope.

3.Ensure quality

4.Understand Financial impacts.

Motivation-Planning, controlling, Effective communications: Experts say that individual and team motivation is the leading factor affecting the productivity of a project team. There are a few steps the Project Manager should take to ensure that the foundation of sound motivation is in place in the project environment.

There are many other sub variables which include these:

1. Building project disciplines in organizations.

2.Superficial Project management Solutions.

Conclusion:

References:

Uluocak, B. (2013). Critical success factors (CSFs) affecting project performance in Turkish IT sector. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2013—EMEA, Istanbul, Turkey. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

T. M. Somers and K. Nelson, "The impact of critical success factors across the stages of enterprise resource planning implementations," Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Maui, HI, USA, 2001, pp. 10 pp.-.

doi: 10.1109/HICSS.2001.927129

Alexandrova, Matilda & Ivanova, Liliana. (2013). CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM PROJECTS SUPPORTED BY EU PROGRAMMES.