Understanding the Project Goals and Requirements
Discuss about the Responsibility Of The Project Manager.
Role in the project:
The role given to the author is the of project manager. The main job of the project manager is to ensure all the details about the project and ensure all the task including in the project is happening in a right way.
Responsibility of the project manager:
The responsibility of the project manager is to understand the goal of the given project and the requirements. Requirements are-
- Reduce the carbon emission from the automobile products made by the company.
- Developing a new technology that will be more efficient in nature as well as, will maintain sustainability.
Project management procedures and controls:
The achievement of the goal of the project needs the right compilation of the certain steps. These are-
- Planning of the project
- Execution of the plan
- Monitoring and control after the modification.
Background information for each activity and the possible outcome:
Activity: To compare the emission rate of the CO2 form the Toyota products and compare the rate with the normal rate.
Background and outcome: In order to do this activity a dedicated team has been assigned, so that the measurements can be done in a proper way (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016). The outcome of this activity is the accurate identification of the rate that is needed to be reduced.
Activity: To research new technologies that can help to reduce the emission and implementation of new technology in the modified model.
Background and outcome: The research and development department (R&D) of the Toyota Motors has been dedicated to this research (Snyder, 2014). The discussion between the management and R&D will result a successful implementation of new technology in product.
Analysis of the project plans:
Project planning includes:
- Gathering of information and requirements.
- Making blueprint of the project.
Deliverables |
Timeframe |
Stakeholder involvement |
Resource available |
Data regarding the emission |
2-3 weeks |
Internal employees of the company |
Data regarding the required CO2 emission . |
Searching of new technologies |
6-12 months |
R&D of Toyota |
The infrastructures of the company. |
Roles of the team members:
- A dedicated team for information gathering regarding the emission.
- R&D team for the searching and implementation of new technology.
Necessary Changes:
Initially there is no need for necessary changes (Serrador & Pinto,2015). The working procedure in the workplace is suitable for developing the project.
Review of the success of the project:
The goal of the project has been fulfilled. Toyota has published a sustainability report on this basis which shows the company has been successfully reduced the carbon emission.
Use of management tools:
In order to do the work sequentially, the initial sequencing of the tasks were done using Gantt chart and after the evaluation of the project prototype, the final project planning is published using WBS.
Efficient project monitoring:
In order to monitor the tasks in the project, all the milestone of the projects regarding the timeframes are arranged in a single project management project planning using the project management tool.
Possible challenges and risks:
While developing the project, some conflicts may happen between the two tasks. In that case elimination of any task can break the project structure. Like, in this project, there were two tasks- one is improving the quality of the automobile system which indirectly contributes to the excessive carbon emission and another task is to reduce the carbon emission from the automobiles. In this situation a rational solution has to be found out by discussion between the project manager and the higher authorities.
The project task is carried out in four different phases:
Project Planning and Execution
Planning: The planning phase consists of the requirement gathering for achieving the goal of reduction of carbon emission from the automobile engines made by Toyota.
Execution: In the execution phase, the execution of the plane is done. In the execution phase, the two approaches were proposed as the possible way for execution of tasks (Culp III et al.,2016). Here, in this case the iterative model has been followed to execute the project plan.
Evaluation: After the execution and implementation process, the evaluation of whole process is done by monitoring and control of the modified products and their performance.
Storing of required project information:
In this phase the information required for implementing the project along with the required information needed to evaluate the success of the project is discussed (Kaplun et al.,2016). During the discussion of the project planning several data collected from the various newspaper article about the impact of the excessive carbon emission.
The Toyota has released a report about the sustainable development of their modified product, which denotes that project has successfully implemented.
Supporting the team members:
As the project manage, encouraging the fellow team member is important. In order to do that, the weekly meeting to be carried out so that the progress of the project can be discussed along with the contribution of the team members. This can play a motivational factor for them to do well.
Handling the challenges:
Some challenges may arise during the compilation of the project (Snyder, 2014). The risk and conflicts associated with the project can bring up the situation when the team needs to seek the advice of the project manager. In this case the managers can discuss the problem with the team members and can find a solution.
Evaluating the chances of risks:
Certain risks are associates with this project. One of the main risk is the aim of reducing the carbon emission from the automobile engines can reduce the performance of those products (Fu, Lau & Varakantham,2015). This can indirectly contribute to the reduction of market share of Toyota, which is not desirable.
Monitoring the target activity:
The monitoring during the compilation of the product, the monitoring is done in order check if the milestones of the project are happening in the right time and in the right way (Hu et al.,2016). The monitoring is done by the project manager and the team members by the self-evaluation.
Handling the unseen changes;
It can be assumed that there can be unpredicted changes during the course of the project compilation. In that case, the alternative approach can be taken, for that reason the iterative approach has been taken to complete the project (Snyder, 2014). In the iterative approach the certain changes can be handled at any part of the project.
Sending deliverables:
Managing Multiple Project Activities
After finalizing the project activities, the deliverables are sent to the project manager and the higher authority for the approval of each task activities (Roosevelt, 2017). This deliverables contain full description of the methods and the process of the compilation of each task of the project. In case any changes require in the task, the project management team is informed about the change and the lsit of new deliverables are prepared by the team.
Checking the requirements:
In this phase all the requirements are checked and verified, so that these requirement files and records contains verified data. Here, in this project the crosschecking of all the numerical values has been done accordingly with the presence of experts.
Recommendation and improvement:
Certain recommendations can be made on the project for the improvement. Here, in this project, the opportunities and the flaws are detected at the end of the project (Snyder, 2014). The identification of the opportunities and the flaws are done by the routine monitoring of the modified system (Locke et al.,2017). Certain recommendations such as- improvement of design of the engine and promoting the engines driven by the renewable energy are made.
Providing accurate report
The importance of daily report has been discussed previously. The reports regarding thye workplace project management is done properly in the daily basis in order to track the project.
Return of the unused project:
The accounting of the used and unused resources is done at the end of the project. The unused resources are returned t the owner of the resource. Though, in this project no unused resources are identified.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that the project regarding the reduction of carbon emission from the automobile made by Toyota can be reduced using the proper selection of activities in the project and effective monitoring. The case study that has been regarding this project has published a report regarding the sustainability of the new product.
References
Regular project reports are submitted to the manager of the project on daily basis. The report contains the review of monitoring of the task in the daily basis. This routine observation helps to identify the required changes in the process if needed and the progress of the project.
Fu, N., Lau, H. C., & Varakantham, P. (2015). Robust execution strategies for project scheduling with unreliable resources and stochastic durations. Journal of Scheduling, 18(6), 607-622.
Hu, X., Cui, N., Demeulemeester, E., & Bie, L. (2016). Incorporation of activity sensitivity measures into buffer management to manage project schedule risk. European Journal of Operational Research, 249(2), 717-727.
Snyder, C. S. (2014). A guide to the project management body of knowledge: PMBOK (®) guide. Project Management Institute: Newtown Square, PA, USA.
Locke II, R. A., Greenberg, S. E., Jagucki, P., Krapac, I. G., & Shao, H. (2017). Regulatory uncertainty and its effects on monitoring activities of a major demonstration project: The Illinois Basin–Decatur Project case. Energy Procedia, 114, 5570-5579.
Roosevelt, E. (2017). Project Process Groups.
Snyder, C. S. (2014). A guide to the project management body of knowledge: PMBOK (®) guide. Project Management Institute: Newtown Square, PA, USA.