Importance of Stakeholder Management
Projects are temporary endeavors that are aimed at creating new products or commodities. As such, they have fixed timelines, schedules and costs. (Aaltonen, 2011)It is the responsibility of the project manager to make sure that all the project objectives are achieved within the specified budget and with the allocated resources (Hamid, 2012). However, numerous tools and techniques have been used to help the project manager navigate through the daily project requirements. Some of the tools that may be used by the project manager include the waterfall, prince2, and scrum among others (Gosh, et al., 2015). Regardless of this, it is up to the stakeholders to determine the progress of the project and determine the best course of action. All these factors have the effect of producing a challenging environment to the project manager but effective use of project management tools, stakeholder management as well as experience play a pivotal role in the success of a project (Eskerod & Huemann, 2013).
Moreover, considering the deliverables and the scope of the project, it is important to consider the stakeholder’s’ power, interest, and needs of the project (Carmeli, 2004). Stakeholders are the institutions, individuals, parties, and companies that have vested interest in the project and play a fundamental role in the management and control of the project (Ingason & Jonasson, 2009). The project manager is supposed to observe all these factors prior to the implementation of the actual project plans.
There are three levels of management that an organization may accord to the undertakings and activities. The lowest level is centered on project management, the second level is program management while the highest level is that of portfolio management (Joslin & Muller, 2015). Nevertheless, program and portfolio managers need to be well conversant with the strategies that may be employed in project management. A program refers to a group of projects whose management leads to more benefits than the individual management of the projects. On the other hand, a portfolio refers to a group of programs and projects that may not be related but can be managed from one viewpoint (Wright & Mcmahan, 2017).
All the above indicate the importance of the application of project management methodologies and strategies for the overall success of the project, program, and portfolio. As such, they may be used in the management of the project ‘Rock’ n Bands’. The methodology that has been employed in this case is the waterfall methodology that considers the precedence of activities with the main focus on the dependence as well as the precedence. The method may also be used to derive the critical path method which focuses on the critical tasks and their precedence (Saucer, et al., 2009). However, an important aspect to consider mainly regards the management of the tasks and activities and how the resources are managed and used.
Levels of Management
The task at hand involves the management of the different workers as well as the cost that is to be allocated to the different tasks. Project planning is essential in project management as it limits the usage of resources as well as the allocation of costs (Buysse & verbeke, 2003). All these are tasks that are mandated by the project manager which ensure that the project is delivered in a timely and cost-effective manner.
The allotment of workers throughout the project is determined by the plans that have been set out by the project manager. However, considering that the number of workers determines the level of progress as well as the total cost of the project, it is imperative to consult the various stakeholders. The number of workers that may be employed per task is two while the maximum number of workers that may be employed per week is 10. Furthermore, the project should take a total of 10 weeks and the cost should be kept within the budget.
As explained, the project should be complete within a span of 10 weeks and from the precedence diagram, three of the paths take a duration of 10 weeks or less while one path takes a total of 11 weeks. Therefore, it is imperative that the project manager concentrates on the path likely to cause a delay in the overall completion time. The path that takes a duration of 11 weeks begins with activity C and is followed by activity B and finally activity J.
Additional workers increase the rate at which a project may be completed but also have the effect of increasing the cost of the project. Furthermore, according to the project explanation, the extra worker will leave his initial task unattended. Regardless of this, considering that the project is temporary and urgent, the project manager will need an additional worker to reduce the number of weeks on the aforementioned path by 1.One simple decision will be the increase in the number of workers on task C to 2.Increasing this number has the effect of reducing the number of weeks to 1.As a result, the number of weeks reduces to 10.
Task A, task C, and task D |
4 |
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Task A, task B, tasks H and D |
4 |
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Task A, task B, and tasks H and D |
4 |
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Task E, Task B, Tasks H and F |
4 |
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Task G, Task B and Tasks I and F |
4 |
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Task K, Task B, and tasks I and F |
4 |
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Task K, Task J, and tasks I and F |
4 |
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Task K, Task J, and tasks I and L |
4 |
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Task K, Task J, and tasks I and L |
4 |
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Tasks K and J |
2 |
The only task to be allocated two workers in a single week is task C. All the other tasks have a single worker per week. Maintaining the weekly workers at a minimum ensures that the overhead costs are maintained at a minimal and therefore ensures that the project manager can save on project costs.
Application of Project Management Methodologies to ‘Rock’ n Bands’
The network Diagram
List of activities
Gantt chart
As per the project requirements and information, the additional worker will increase the cost of the project by $100.However, he will save the reputation of the company as well as enhance the public relations. Regardless of this, the total cost of the project is $7700.The major advantage will be the early completion and budgetary management.
Conclusion
The use of project management methodologies ensures that the project manager works within the allowable time and within the allocated budget. It is therefore imperative that the project manager is knowledgeable on project management methodologies as well as the details of the project. Regardless of the methodology employed, the responsibility of the project manager is to ensure that the costs are kept to a minimal and more to this, the project deliverables are achieved within the allocated time.
References
Aaltonen, k., 2011. Project stakeholder analysis as an environmenatl interpretation process. International journal of project management.
Buysse, K. & verbeke, A., 2003. Proactive environmenatl strategies:A stakeholder management perspective. strategic management journal.
Carmeli, A., 2004. Assessing Core intangible resources. European management Journal.
Eskerod, P. & Huemann, m., 2013. Sustainable development and project stakeholder management:What standards say. Internationa;l journal of management.
Gosh, S. et al., 2015. Enhance PMBOK by comparing it with P2M,ICB,prince2,APM and scrum management standards 2. PM world Journal, Volume 14, pp. 1-75.
Hamid, A., 2012. Critical features for project stakeholder management: a systematic literature review. international journal of applied systematic studies.
Ingason, H. T. & Jonasson, H. I., 2009. Contemporary knowledge and skill requirements in project management. Project Management Journal.
Joslin, R. & Muller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of Project Management.
Saucer, B. J., Reilly, R. R. & Shenhar, A. J., 2009. Why projects fail? How contingency theory can provide new insights–A comparative analysis of NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter loss. journal of project management.
Wright, P. M. & Mcmahan, G. C., 2017. theoretical perspective for strategic human resource management. journal of management.