PROJ6003 Project Execution And Control Management

Questions:

Project reporting and reporting cycles are an important part of monitoring and controlling projects. Reporting the status of a project as it progresses through it’s lifecycle is a key responsibility of a project manager. The type and frequency of project reports are provided for stakeholders as specified in the project’s communications management plan.

1.Draw on tools and techniques of sourcing project data, develop a range of processes and measures to manage scope, change and quality on complex global projects.

2.Critically analyse project risks and develop a range of strategies to effectively manage those risks in order to ensure expected project management outcomes.

3.Critically reflect on the project leadership and communication skills required to maximise project outcomes in the execution, control and closure phases of projects.

Answers:

Topic- Important factor of global project management:-

From the first module I have learned about changed management is considered to be important factor of project management. I have learned about the fact that various process or strategies which are essential for managing the various changes of project. In this module various topics like project team acquisition and development, direction and management of project work and team, execution of various groups, analyzing and controlling of various process of groups (Snyder, 2014). There are several factors which are considered for acquiring the different project teams. Proper negotiation and influence of various people who are in a level to provide human resource for various project. In case of failure the human resource for the project can affect the schedule of projects, proper budget, satisfaction of customers, quality and various risk associated with it. In many cases it is seen that human resource is not available due to any kind of constraint then project manager or team can look for alternative resource (Rose, 2013). I have learned about the characteristics of core team members are commitment, sharing of responsibility, flexibility, team orientation and lastly open minded. I have learned about the virtual team which generally aims in providing new possibilities when acquiring of team members. Virtual teams can be defined as a group of people with common goal which is generally needed for satisfying roles and responsibilities with minimum time spend on face to face meeting (Ghosh, et al., 2012). Project manager generally focus on identification, building, motivation and inspiration of project. It generally aims in providing knowledge and skill to its team members which generally aims in increase the ability to provide competition to various project deliverables. I have learned about the what is management of project teams (Snyder, 2017). Management of project team is the method of tracking the performance of various team members. Benefits of this particular process mainly arises from team behaviors and management of team for optimization of performance of project. I have learned about effective decision making which generally focus on six stages identification of problem, collection of information, identification of alternative methods, choosing of alternative methods, implement the various action (Mesquida & Mas, 2014). I have learned about direct and management of project work. I have learned about various types of procurement that is fixed price, cost reimbursable, time and material management. I have learned about management of stakeholders and many other topics from module 1.

Module 2

The second module is all about control techniques and tools which consist of subtopics about change, drivers of change, managing of change, project monitoring and controlling, control of scope, various scope control techniques, cost control, various cost control tools and techniques related to it. I have learned about quality control, various tools and techniques of quality control, tools and techniques for communication, risk control with various tools and techniques, procurement control and various control tools and techniques related it (Matos & Lopes, 2013). I have learned about how to manage project team with various tools and techniques related to it. I have learned about control stakeholder engagement with various tools and techniques related to it. I have learned about various tools and techniques associated with monitoring and controlling of various project work.

Change generally affect the scope, cost, quality and time of a project on the basis of direct and indirect. For the above reason every project needs proper process to check, implement and provide change of control (Stackpole, 2013). There are mainly two type of drivers that is internal and external. External drivers are inclusive of technological, demographic and social economic pressure whereas internal drivers are inclusive of needs of client, costs, human resource, issues related to performance. For proper management of change the project should have identification various changes which are necessary and maintenance of positive effect of change (Chaves et al., 2016). Various process of change management is analysis of risk, activity involved in leadership, communication, feedback and correct action, reward which generally acts like reinforcement. Monitoring and controlling process group generally consist of tracking, reviewing and identification of certain areas identification of changes to plan. Scope control can be defined as the method of analyzing the status of project with scope of product and management of changes associated in the baseline (Langston, 2013). The ultimate benefit which can be gathered is that it helps in scope baseline to be easily maintained throughout the project. I have learned about variance analysis which is technique or method which is used for analyzing the reason and level of difference between baseline and actual level of performance. Control schedule is a method for analyzing the status of project and proper management of scheduling of the baseline of the project. Cost control is monitoring of the status of various project cost and managing the changes which is associated with the cost baseline. There are mainly seven steps involved in review of performance, software for project management, techniques of modelling, leads and lags associate with it and tools for scheduling (Rosito, Callegari & Bastos, 2012). Quality control is the method of analyzing and recording of result of quality activities for accessing performance and suggest required changes. The benefits of this method are identification of reason behind the poor cause or quality of product and taking necessary steps to eliminate it. Validation of deliverables of various projects which is mainly stated by stakeholders for final acceptance. Communication control is method of analyzing and controlling communication throughout the lifecycle of a project which mainly ensure that all the needs of project stakeholders are provided. Risk controlling is the risk response plans, identification of new risks. It mainly improves the efficiency of risk approach throughout the cycle of project and generally aims in optimizing the risk responses. Procurement control is the management of procurement relationship, monitoring of performance of contract and provides certain changes as per the requirement of contracts.

Module 3

After going through Quality assurance and control method I have learnt about various about definition of Quality. I have learned about various topics like ASQ, ISO and ASCE. ASQ stands for American society of Quality mainly bears the ability to satisfy needs and provide needs. ISO stands for international Organization of standardization is generally considered the ability to satisfy the needs. ASCE stands for American Society of Civil Engineers which is the fulfillment of responsibilities of project and services in such a way that delivery of products and services in such a way that it can be meet or satisfy the needs and expectation of various owners. Quality of product generally depends on performance, durability, special features, consistency, reliability and providing service (Schwalbe, 2012). I have come across various names like Kaoru Ishikawa, Philip Crosby, Joseph Juran, I have learned that total quality management is method or technique used for planning, organizing and proper understanding of various activities of different process and removal of unnecessary steps. TQM can be defined method which is provides quality values which generally drives designing, planning and improvements of various activities. There are mainly eight principles of TQM which are focus of customer, leadership, involvement of various people, process and approach of various system. I have learned about deliverables of various projects, measuring various techniques which are considered to be specific to that particular type of deliverable. I have learned of about the difference between Quality and Grade. I have learned about the quality management of PMBOK model. I have learned about the plan quality management, performing of Quality assurance. Quality audit can be defined as a structured independent process which is genarlly used for the analyzing the activities of project and policies of project.

Module 4

In the module four I have learned about project risk management in which definition of project risk has been provided. Project risk can be defined as event or condition which occurs if it has a positive or negative impact on one or more objectives of project which consist of various parameter like scope, schedule, cost and quality. A risk can be defined as one or more because which is generally involved in one or many causes (Larson & Gray, 2013). The project characteristic is complexity, people, stakeholders and various changes associated within the project. The external environment generally comprises of requirements of emergent, PSTLIED factors, changes made in client organization. I have learned about the benefits of Effective risk management which is inclusive of various parameters like exploitation of more opportunities, providing trade-off, increase of chance of success, provide support to innovation, increases efficiency, motivate various teams associated with a project. There are mainly three type of risk that is known risk, unknown risk, realized risk. Identification of various risk a has been discussed. Case studies like Panama Canal, sinking of the titanic, BP’s the Deepwater horizon 2010 has been discussed in details in the module.

Module 5

In the module five I have learned about progress and performance measurement tools and two types of evaluation are formative evaluation, summative evaluation has been discussed. Proper evaluation of project which consist of component evaluation and outcome evaluation. Stages of project lifecycle has been discussed in details (Schwalbe, 2015). Various parameters of cause to variance to cost, reason of scheduling variance, analysis of presentation. There are five type of report based on project status which are present period of reports, cumulative reports, stoplight reports, exception of reports, variance reports. Project generally focus on two basic units namely time and cost. Health checks of project generally offer the greatest opportunity which will ultimately save various failures associated with a project (Kerzner, 2013). There are certain number of benefits of health check like identification of current status of the project, identify the critical success factors or critical issues. Identification of benefits and value which will be there after completion, identification of activities which will be provide benefit from various additional resources. There are certain number of misconception for health checks values like health check is considered to be costly for its value, health checks provide tie ups in critical resources.

Module 6

The module six is all about project closure and I have learned about PMBOK’s closing process group. Closing project or phase can be defined as the method of finalizing of various activities. The main benefits which can be gathered by making use of technology is that it provides some important lessons, formal ending of the project (Leach, 2014). I have learned that there are four type of project closure that are normal, premature, failed project, changed as per priority. Closure activity has mainly six steps that are having acceptance of client, ensures that all the drivers are installed, ensuring all the documents are in proper place. Having post implementation audit and lastly celebration of success. Contractual closure will be generally based on requirements of the project which is generally defined within the project. Project acceptance can be defined as the formal activity which is generally undertaken between project teams and initiators of project. Financial closure generally refers to completion of budget of the project (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016).  Financial closure is generally provided for completing the project of the financial system and budget involved with it. It mainly ensures undertake all the payables work within laws within laws of enterprise solution. There are certain number of reason for not performing post implementation audit which are managers don’t want to have an idea regarding it, manager does not want to pay the cost. I have learned about the responsibility of both managers and project manager who are entitled to deal with the emotional reaction of various team members which will help in maintaining the productivity. While performing the above activity the project is temporary while project team members are considered to belong to particular enterprise. Key factors behind the removal of members of project are developing plan for dismiss of project teams.

Importance of Leadership and Communication for project success

A project can be successful only when managers provide the require work which is done by team member in an efficient and effective way. It generally requires the members of the team to have a clear idea regarding reason, provides an ability to prove provide scheduling and can attract talented and efficient team members (Hwang & Ng, 2013). The application of leadership and management in the execution of project generally depends on type of project and life cycle associated with it (Heldman, 2015). Leadership should be considered to flexible, sharing and innovation for bring the project to success. Leaders should provide an emphasis on better building of teams and motivating it. During the planning phase of the project it duty of leader to properly lead the team and various stakeholders through various project study and understanding the needs of the project. The phase needs to be stressed so that it can provide proper awareness on the needs of the various requirements. A good leader should have the capability to understand the changes and address it properly. The leader should provide direction to team members which consist of various methods for coping up with the speed and making utilization of one advantage. It is the duty of leaders to provide credit, creativity and support team members in having calculative risk so that the project can be deliver in progress.

References

Chaves, M. S., Araújo, C. D., Teixeira, L. R., Glória Júnior, I., Rosa, D., & Nogueira, C. D. (2016). A new approach to managing Lessons Learned in PMBoK process groups: the Ballistic 2.0 Model. International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management, 4(1), 27-45.

Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2016, December). Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Ghosh, S., Forrest, D., DiNetta, T., Wolfe, B., & Lambert, D. C. (2012). Enhance PMBOK® by Comparing it with P2M, ICB, PRINCE2, APM and Scrum Project Management Standards. PM World Today, 14(1), 1-77.

Heldman, K. (2015). PMP project management professional exam deluxe study guide: updated for the 2015 Exam. John Wiley & Sons.

Hwang, B. G., & Ng, W. J. (2013). Project management knowledge and skills for green construction: Overcoming challenges. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), 272-284.

Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Langston, C. (2013). Development of generic key performance indicators for PMBOK® using a 3D project integration model. Construction Economics and Building, 13(4), 78-91.

Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. (2013). Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS Project. McGraw-Hill.

Leach, L. P. (2014). Critical chain project management. Artech House.

Matos, S., & Lopes, E. (2013). Prince2 or PMBOK–a question of choice. Procedia Technology, 9, 787-794.

Mesquida, A. L., & Mas, A. (2014). A project management improvement program according to ISO/IEC 29110 and PMBOK®. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 26(9), 846-854.

Rose, K. H. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fifth Edition. Project management journal, 44(3).

Rosito, M., Callegari, D., & Bastos, R. M. (2012). Project management and software development processes: integrating PMBOK and OPEN. International Journal of Computer and Communication Engineering, 6(24), 139-147.

Schwalbe, K. (2012, September). Managing a Project Using an Agile Approach and the PMBOK® Guide. In ISECON conference, New Orleans, LA.

Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

Snyder, C. (2017). A project manager's book of forms: A companion to the PMBOK guide. John Wiley & Sons.

Snyder, C. S. (2014). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute.

Stackpole, C. S. (2013). A User's Manual to the PMBOK Guide. John Wiley & Sons.