Modern Project Management
Discuss about the Key Issues Of Project Management.
Project management or PM generally refers to the application of the various processes, methods and skills along with the application of experiences so as to achieve success in the objectives of the project. One of the key factor which is responsible for distinguishing the project management from just management is that project management is having a final deliverable along with a finite lifespan which is not like the management which is an ongoing process. From the chapters I have leant the basic of project management along with the risks faced by it. Besides this I have also learnt about the process of managing the risks associated with project management. This report is going to provide a broad overview of the major issues faced by PM and the lessons which I have learned from the course which are going to help me obtain a better understanding of the different concepts provided to us in the course.
The key issues in modern project management can be categorized into various kind and this mainly includes the following:
- Undefined or poorly defined goals: One of the major challenge that is faced by the project members as well as by the team members is when they are not aware of the actual goal of the project. In cases when the projects are not defined in a proper way then there exists high possibility of project failure. A lot of chaos and confusion is created whenever the people involved in the project are not aware of what’s, why and when of the project. Whenever a project starts without any clear objective or specified direction or without any kind of plan might lead to project failure.
- Unrealistic deadlines: This is generally considered to be the second challenge faced by the project management. This includes the unrealistic expectation that the clients and the stakeholders are having from the project managers and the members of the project. It has been seen that there is a slip in the project timelines because of the unrealistic deadlines at the initial stage of the project.
- Insufficiency in the skills of the Team: Success of any kind of project in greatly dependent upon the skills of the team responsible for the completion of the project. The tasks in a project are assigned to the team members according to their skills and in case when the members are not skilled or trained in a proper way they won’t be capable of meeting all the challenges and the tasks which are assigned to them.
- Improper communication: one of the biggest challenge faced by project management is the poor communication amongst the team members and all others who are associated with the project. Poor communication might lead to unsuccessful delivery of the project. One of the greatest asset that each and every project manager should have is proper communication.
From the course I have learnt what is meant by a project. Project is nothing but a temporary endeavor which is undertake in order to create a product, result or a service which is totally unique. Besides this I also learnt about the various characteristics of a project which mainly includes an established objective, a well-defined life span with proper beginning and ending time, involves doing of certain things that has never been implemented before which means a non-routine activity having a unique element and lastly has a specific requirement of cost, time and performance. In order to complete a project there is need f proper project management. Project management is considered to be the process which is associated with managing the interdependent and ongoing projects which are conducted by a group. This includes proper coordination which would be helping in the achievement of the objectives of the project. The course also helped in understanding the project life cycle which is generally divided into four steps and this includes the defining phase, planning phase, executing phase and lastly the closure phase. The course also helped in understanding the major challenges faced by the project management along with the importance and the benefits of project management.
From the course I learnt that project management helps a lot in managing the daily life activities. By application of the project management which is not but the application of knowledge skills and the techniques which are needed in order to complete the task in an effective and efficient way would be very much helpful. So, I would be using this technique in future. While doing any kind of task I would be dividing the task into four steps as stated in the project life cycle. Firstly I would be initiating the work then I would be making plans in order to have a successful project. After the planning is completed I would be proceeding to the execution of the project and once the execution is competed I would be monitoring my task and do the necessary things in order to complete the project and lastly I would be moving into the closure of the project.
Key Issues faced by Project Management
From the course conducted in the class the ideas that I was having about project management has totally changes. I have understood the fact that before proceeding with any kind of task a proper planning is needed and this would be very much helpful in achieving success in the task. Project management helps in making life become much easier. Each and every task planned in a proper way would be very much helpful. There exists five major phases in the project management and this phases helps a lot in the management and controlling of the project in every way possible. The phases which are included in the project mainly involves the following:
- Project initiation: This is the first phase of a project lifecycle. In this phase the measurements regarding the value and feasibility of the project are done.
- Project Planning: After receiving of the green light there is a need of solid plan so as to guide the entire team associated with the project to proceed with the project and make plans regarding the budget and time. Project plan acts as a guide in the process of obtaining the resources along with the acquiring of the financing and the materials which are required. Planning also helps in making a project team get prepared for the obstacles that are going to come.
- Execution of the project: In this phase the deliverables of the project are built in order to satisfy the customers. This is generally done by the leaders of the team by allocation of the resources and making the team focus on the tasks assigned to them. The execution phase is highly dependent upon the planning phase and besides this the work and the effort that is provided by the team in the execution phase is obtained from the planning of the project.
- Monitoring and controlling of the project: In this phase of the project lifecycle the execution of the project is monitored so as to eliminate any kind of possible errors along with controlling the entire process of execution. Which means that this phase is often combined with the execution phase as they occur at the same time. Constant monitoring is needed throughout the entire phase. Constant monitoring would help the project to move ahead smoothly.
- Closure of the project: This the last phase of the project lifecycle and includes the delivery of the final project. This is considered to be one of the vital phase as this helps the teams a lot in evaluating and documenting their project so as to move on to the next one by making use of the mistakes that has been done in the previous project and the successes so as to have a strong process and more successful delivery of future projects.
There exists certain gaps in project management and I would like to explore this gaps in the future in order to bridge the gaps. The major gaps which I have identified mainly includes the gap that exists between the strategic plans and the daily agenda of the team members, use of the efficient and appropriate project management software and many more.
Two major issues have been identified while managing the risks in a project and this mainly includes the following:
- Lack of risk decision making structure and the lack of Accountability for the decisions related to risk in a project. In each and every project the managers are very comfortable with the process of risk decision making but in many cases it has been seen that the right people are not associated with the making of those decisions, however it has also been seen that the big risk decisions are made at a very low rate in the projects. A project manager might not be associated with accepting a large information security risk and this might be leading to the compliance and reputational issues. This simply happens due to the fact that they are only getting incentivized on is the delivering of the product in successful way. So there is a need of developing certain structures in order to have an important risk based decision which are generally made by the appropriate persons who are responsible for the impact whether it is good or bad.
- Lack in the meaningful risk assessment process: There exists many project managers who are associated with considering the risk management as something which they have to do from the compliance standpoint who would be associated with conducting certain superficial risk assessments. While others are only having the right skills in order to develop a meaning risk assessment process. Developing a meaningful risk assessment process would be associated with enabling the better identification of the risks which are generally based upon the goals that the project is having and is associated with defining the risks.
From the class I have learnt about what a risk is and this generally refers to the occurrence of any kind of uncertain or chances of events which cannot be overcome by any kind of planning or control. Besides this I also understand the meaning of risk as stated by the PMI which states that is the “Uncertain events or conditions which are generally occurring due to the positive and the negative effect over the objectives of a project. From the course I also learnt about the risk project life cycle which be understood by the graph provided to us. The risk anatomy has also been taught to us in a proper way which includes the actual cause of the risk, what are the events occurring due to the risk and lastly the effects of the risk. I also understood the key attributes of the project risk management which includes the structure and formality, continuity, focus of the project and the process of making decisions. There also exists certain benefits of risk management as well. the process of risk management includes the risk identification, planning, analysis and evaluation of the risks, treatment of the risks and lastly the implementation and controlling of the risks.
I would be surely applying the risk management process in the future. Risk management helps a lot in avoiding the various kind of risks that might be arising due to different kind of circumstances. Firstly we have to ask ourselves what is going wrong and what would happen if something wrong happens and what are the things that needs to be done in order to prevent it. This is a proactive process and in this process the risks are to be identified before the occurrence of the risks and certain measures are to be taken in order to eliminate them. By this process the risks would be eliminated easily the success would be achieved very easily besides this it also saves cost resources and time and also increase the reputation.
From the course conducted in the class I have understood that is a very important aspect of a project management which is generally ignored in most of the cases. I have understood that if ris management is not applied then it might to the obtaining of the results which are totally undesired so it is very necessary to apply the risk management technique.
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