Is Project Management

IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT

CIF301

Name: Kealeboga ThoboloStudentID: 119062779

Center: University of SunderlandLocal center: Botswana Accountancy College

1. IntroductionThe report critically evaluates and outlines some aspect and factors of project management. The report mainly revolves around three points or sections which are, how risk is managed during the feasibility and planning of a project, the main areas where project monitoring and control breakdowns result in project failure, late delivery or exceeding the set budget and lastly the effects of project management tools like MS projects in the way projects are planned and managed. Erickson.J.M and Evaristo.R (2006) explains a project as a temporary endeavor executed by the selected team to complete a set of aims and objectives. Project management therefore is all about managing (planning, organizing, staffing, directing, monitoring etc) the project. Both project and project management success are very significant to the organization as they gradually lead to the success of the whole organization. Project success rate is obtained looking at the overall objectives of the project and project management success rate is retrieved basin on aspects like project completion on time, cost, scope and quality (Anantatmula.V.S, 2010)

2. Section 1

How is risk managed during the feasibility and planning of a project

Introduction

Knowing what risks the project faces at any stage of the project and managing those risks is essential to successful completion of the project. While some problems come up unexpectedly, most risks can be foreseen and prepared for. MattH.Evans (n.d) defines a risk as anything that may happen that could create an adverse effect to your schedule, costs, quality, or scope of the project undertaken.According to AusGuideline (2005) further makes it clearer that risk management is a systematic process of assessing and then addressing with risk at hand. The benefits of risk management include a more effective strategic planning due to an increased knowledge and understanding of the risk, fewer cost demands, activities are more efficiently and effectively managed because advisers and stakeholders understand the activity’s vulnerability to risk and take adequate preventative or mitigation measures.

O’Neill.T and Leaney.J (2001) clarifies that risk has two characteristics being uncertainty and loss. Uncertainty means that an event may or may not occur and loss simply means the event has unwanted results or consequences. It is very critically to manage risk in each stage involved in project development. O’Neill.T and Leaney.J (2001) emphasis that risk management can identify potential problems earlier in the project hence deal with them easily with minimum cost related. Expert Technical Committee (2006) clarifies that risk management is not only concerned with identifying and analyzing possible outcomes, but also how to alleviate or mitigate the negative impacts arising from those outcomes. Zardari.S (2009) advocates that managing risk also involves deciding cost effective measures and approaches for reducing the outcome threat effect to the organization. Erickson.J.M and Evaristo.R (2006) adds that there are several risk factors to be considered when managing risk.

Apart from the risk management processes (identification, Quantification, Risk Response Development and Risk Response Control) which are applied throughout the whole project, Risk must be taken into consideration as early as at the feasibility phase of the project for a successful project. Gerv´as.P (2002) emphasizes that feasibility study forms an integral part of the project work. Asprey.L (2004) also states that feasibility study assess the project determining if it is viable. It is very crucial to manage risk that will make the project infeasible during the project feasibility. According to Gerv´as.P (2002) risk management at the project feasibility is done by providing answers to the following questions;

Does the system contribute to the overall objectives of the organization? Can it be implemented within current technology and within given cost and schedule

constraints? Can it be integrated with other systems that are already in place?

Answers to the above questions will greatly reduce or eliminate risk hence increasing chances of project success. Castro and Mylopoulos (2004) states that managing risks at the feasibility stage involves assessing various risk factors that might affect the project at that stage, some of the factors include;

System requirements: which involves poorly understood requirements at scheduling time, customer requirements changes, IS staff insist on unnecessary features;

Tools and technology: which involves an unsuitable target deployment environment, an unsuitable development tools, new tools, no technology standards

People: Inadequate participation by users in development process, poor project management, poorly trained developers;

Environment: Weak upper management commitment, changing environment, changing technological environment, Government action.

Developing a project plan includes assessing the risk of the tasks or work to be carried out during the project. Donaldson.S.E and Siegel.S.G (2007) argues that as much as project planning is very important taking into consideration the risk associated to the project during planning is also critical. It is important to manage project risk during the planning of the project. Donaldson.S.E and Siegel.S.G (2007) states that managing risk in project planning involves the following;

Assessing and scaling the risk for accomplishing the task or work to be done Allocating appropriate resource to reduce or eliminate the identified and anticipated risk. Monitoring the risk throughout the planning of the project and coming up with ways to

control or mitigate them.

According to Donaldson.S.E and Siegel.S.G (2007) managing risk during the project planning may be carried out by integrating risk assessment with resource estimation therefore reducing risk in the project plan. Donaldson.S.E and Siegel.S.G (2007) describes a five step risk assessment process to manage risk during project planning

Decide the number of risk levels.The organization should decide on the number of risk level needed. Three most common risk levels are classical hierarchy (low risk, medium risk and high risk), common characteristics hierarchy (unknown requirements, inexperienced staff, and use of immature technology) and project size hierarchy (categorizes projects by budget, complexity or schedule duration)

Define risk criteria (for each risk level)An organization must define its own risk criteria which correspond to the risk level for that organization. The figure is an example of a set of risk criteria defined for a certain organisation;Figure 2.0High risk Low risk Medium risk

Unique application

Lack of up-to-date documentation

Inexperienced development staff

No schedule slack

Uncertain requirements

Multiple customers

Subcontractor labor hours at least 50 percent of total development labor hours.

Application domain well understood

Up-to-date documentation

Experienced development staff

Flexible schedule

Requirements certain

Customer not new to the seller

Software failure doesn’t result in death, injury, or large financial loss to either

Application domain not well understood

Documentation not up-to-date

Some inexperienced development staff

Little schedule slack

Some major requirements uncertain

First-time customer for seller Subcontractor labor hours between 25 and 50 percent of

Associated risks include less management flexibility, and subcontractor rate increases.

Software failure results in death, injury, or large financial loss to either the customer or seller.

customer or seller. total development labor hours. Associated risks include reduced management flexibility, and subcontractor rate increases.

Software failure results in high visibility within customer community.

Section 1 ConclusionAccording to Yusuff (n.d) risk Management could often contribute to project success through improvements due to the loopholes it uncovered, so it at the feasibility and planning stages that the success or failure of the project could be determined, Managing risks during the feasibility and planning of a project is a critical task because these stages helps management to determine whether the project can be done, assess alternative solutions and provide the criteria for choosing among them. After these stages have been thoroughly done then management can now make a go/not-go decision based on the outcomes of these stages so managing risks can further help the management make the decision and reduce meeting danger later on during the project.

3. Section 2

What are the main areas where project monitoring and control breakdowns causing projects to fail, deliver late or go over budget?

Introduction

Lorin J. May(2009) defines failure as any software project with severe cost or schedule overruns, quality problems, or that suffers outright cancellation.Guo-li.Y (2010) further clarifies that the main purpose of project monitoring and control is to support the implementation of corrective measures undertaken in the project, ensure projects are always on targets and also take corrective measures to take the project back on target. Project target include mainly time, cost and schedule targets. Some of the main areas where project monitoring and control are very crucial includes the construction phase, project scope, project user requirements and scheduling, further details are provided below on these;

Guo-li.Y (2010) claims that construction phase is one of the main areas where project monitoring and control are very crucial especially for achieving the project time and cost target. Project monitoring and control breakdown in this phase or area will lead to late project delivery or the project going over budget. Since construction phase mainly relies on the project plan it is highly critical to be aware of the activities that are most likely to cause project failure or delay (Guo-li.Y 2010). Methods used to control project time or monitor project delivery on time

include Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Omar A (2009) emphasis that PERT is a vital tool used to schedule projects used in the project monitoring and controlling. Guo-li.Y (2010) states that time delays which will lead to project late delivery can be dealt with by increasing resource levels e.g. increasing labour and improving resource efficiency by using high skilled employees. According to Guo-li.Y (2010) cost control includes setting up measure to ensure all costs are properly allocated against project codes, ensure all costs are corresponding of project activities etc.

Erickson.J.M and Evaristo.R (2006) states that project scope is another area where project monitoring and control breakdown result in project failure, late delivery or project going over budget. Unclear or misunderstood scope, changing scope and poor business case are some factors that will definitely lead to project failure, late delivery or project going over budget. Project scope is very important and determines the project success hence project monitoring and control must be performed effectively under this area (project scope).

Project requirements should be well defined and understood for a successful project. Erickson.J.M and Evaristo.R (2006) explains that inadequate specification of requirements, poor specification of requirements and also requirements not used as a source of validation will highly contribute to project failure, late delivery or going over budget. Project monitoring and control breakdown in the requirements area will definitely result in project failure, late delivery or going over budget.

Scheduling is also a major area where project monitoring and control breakdown result in project failure, late delivery or going over budget. Erickson.J.M and Evaristo.R (2006) explains that schedule involves the timing of the task and resources required for a successful project completion. Availability of resources to execute the project on time is critical for successful completion of project objectives. Project schedule therefore must be monitored and controlled effectively to avoid project failure.

Conclusion of Section 2

All these areas need to be critically analyzed as many project failure causes arise from them, these causes may be lack of resources, poor communication, lack of planning and poor quality control, therefore the development and design of a project requires skills that project managers need to poses to reduce chances of failures.

4. Section 3

How has the use of project management tools like MS project change the way project are planned?

Critical Path AnalysisProject Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM) are the two network oriented tools which involves arranging task into networks hence making interdependencies amongst them more visible and allows project managers to easily identify events that threatens successful completion of the project.(Caughron.JJ and Mumford.M.D, 2008).Since PERT/CPM allows easy identification of project threats (through the critical path) this automatically affects the project planning and management as now the project team will have to reallocate resources and attention to mitigate or eliminate the threats hence leading successfully project completion. Project planning and management will be done mainly looking at the anticipated delays or problems and adjustment to the planning and management of the project will be carried out so that those delays may be obviated.

Gantt chartAccording to Caughron.JJ and Mumford.M.D(2008) Gantt chart is a tool used mostly for planning where the project is broken down into components task then the task are mapped on to the time chart. Time chart includes the estimated time needed to complete each task and the personnel responsible for the task. Caughron.JJ and Mumford.M.D (2008) adds that Gantt chart is primarily used as a communication and coordination tool when planning and managing the project. In brief Gantt chart help determine how many tasks must be completed, how the task relates to each other and how to order task in a manageable manner at during project planning and management.

5. ConclusionProject management is a very crucial aspect for a successful project. Risk management is one of the critical factors that has to be fully considered during the project. Managing risk reduces and controls project risk that may result in project failure. Also project management include monitoring and controlling of the project to keep up with activities and processes taking place within the project hence major cost, schedule and quality problems can be avoided or mitigated. There are various techniques, methodologies and tools which are used to aid project management. This have being very beneficial to many projects as they provide easier ways of managing projects processes, entities and activities. Project management tools are mainly used to manage time, cost and schedule in the project.

REFERENCES

[1] Erickson.J.M and Evaristo.R (2006), ‘Risk Factors in Distributed Projects’, Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Dept. of Information and Decision Sciences, IEEE, University of Illinois, Chicago

[2] AusGuideline, (November 2005), 6.3 General Guidance in Managing Risk, Australian Government (AUSAID), Commonwealth of Australia 2005, pp 1-27 [Online] [Accessed on] 22nd November 2011

[3] O’Neill.T and Leaney.J (2001), ‘Risk management for an Open CBS project’, Proceedings of the Eighth Annual IEEE International Conference and Workshop on the Engineering of Computer Based Systems, Computer Systems Engineering Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology, Sydney

[4] MattH.Evans,CPA,CMA,CFM, (no date), Excellence in Financial Management: Course 19:Managing Projects, pp 1-56, [Online] [Accessed on] 22nd November 2011

[5] Jaelson Castro and John Mylopoulos (2004), The Feasibility Study, Information Systems Analysis and Design, module CSC340, pp 1-30, [Online] [Accessed on] 22nd November 2011

[6] Expert Technical Committee (2006) ‘Project Risk Management’, Development of Risk Based Contingency Values for a Baseline Project Budget Estimate, pp1-12

[7] Mohamed Noordin Yusuff (n.d), Contemporary approaches to project risk management: assessment & recommendations, Dip.ECC, SDip.IS, M.IntSecMgmt(Distinction), pp 1-15, , [Online] [Accessed on] 22nd November 2011

[8] Lorin J. May (2009), Major Causes of Software Project Failures, Crosstalk Associate Editor- NCI Information Systems, Inc. [Online] [Accessed on] 22nd November 2011.

[9] Anantatmula.V.S, (2010), ‘Project Manager Leadership Role in Improving Project Performance’, Engineering Management Journal Vol. 22 No. 1, Western Carolina University

[10] Gerv´as.P (2002),’ Feasibility Analysis for Web Project Engineering Encoded as Rule-Based Expert System’, Proceedings of the 28 th Euromicro Conference (EUROMICRO’02), IEEE, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain

[11] Guo-li.y (2010),’ Project Time and Budget Monitor and Control’, Management Science and Engineering, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2010, pp. 56-61, Master, Technical Development Center, Liuzhou, Guangxi, China

[12] Omar A (2009),’ Uncertainty in Project Scheduling—It’s Use in PERT/CPM Conventional Techniques’, Cost Engineering Vol. 51/No. 7 July 2009

[13] Caughron.JJ and Mumford.M.D (2008) , ‘Project Planning: The Effects of Using Formal Planning Techniques on Creative Problem-Solving’, Volume 17 Number 3 2008, Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing

[14] Soraya J. NetoAlvarez(March 2003), Project management failure: main causes, Bowie State University, Maryland in Europe, pp 1-15

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