Why Stopping A Project Before Initiation Phase Is Crucial In Project Management

The importance of project initiation phase for effective project management

 Some of the theorist argued that that the perfect time for stopping a project is before its initiation. This statement is true because the project initiation phase is the first phase within the entire life cycle of project management where the business problem or opportunities are identified, project is formed as well as a proper project team is mainly appointed for building and delivering the solution to the customer of the organization (Mir and Pinnington 2014).  The success of the entire project mainly depends on the accuracy as well as clarity of the business case. If the business case is not developed properly in the project initiation phase then it will quite difficult to manage the project effectively for achieving success. Additionally, it is also necessary to identify proper objectives of the project.

This paper mainly elaborates the statement successfully for reflecting the reasons behind stopping a project before the initiation phase of the project.  The paper illustrates how the statement is true and what the project managers need to do for ensuring that the entire project will be successful once the project is initiated. It is found that proper evidence as well as examples are provided in order to achieve project success and for supporting the arguments of the project.

Project management as a tool for delivering internal and external change

In today’s world, the project management plays a great role in underpinning the most of the global economic related activities as project helps in enabling a government for delivering changes or assists in allowing an organization to meet various strategic objectives and aims (Heldman 2018). Thus, millions of project is generally being undertaken that generally creates strong demand for executing the project successfully. The project management as a tool can be able to deliver both internal as well as external change if the project is initiated successfully with proper goals and objectives. If the project manager makes accurate business case by defining the objectives of the project appropriately then the project will be able to deliver the changes that are related with external and internal environment of the organization effectively.  It is found that the when project management as a tool is applied within the project then the results    of the  project helps in changing the internal environment as well as external environment of the project (Binder 2016). For example, the project of portfolio and resource management by the American airlines not only helps the organization in capitalizing 10% of their IT labour but also helps in project in gaining visibility as well as broader divisional and global priorities in the Australian market.

Key considerations required at the project conceptualization stage

Examples of PM that enables competitive advantage over competitors

Project plays a great role in enabling competitive advantage over competitors. It is stated by Hornstein (2015) that organizations that align the project with their own organizational strategy for taking advantage of the re-emerging and focuses on the people as well as other project stakeholder by paying attention on their processes can play a great role in gaining competitive advantage over other competitors in the market (Svejvig and Andersen 2015). For example, the internal machinery and plan engineering projects mainly gains competitive advantage by efficiently managing the project. In addition to this, it is identified that the aviation consultancy named “PROLOGIS” mainly utilized project management practices for ensuring all side of cost-schedule and scope triangle in order to achieve competitive advantage.

Delivery of commercial improvements in efficiency, performance and cost reduction with the help of PM

It is stated by Joslin and Müller (2015) that project management helps in improving the commercial efficiency by rewarding the team members, removing barriers, by clarifying expectations or by setting dates as well as by taking proper follow up. Similarly, the efficiency of the project can be improved with the help of project management by taking proper steps including proper standardization of project planning, time and resource logging, risk management as well as by reporting the status of the project. Additionally the project management plays a great role in reducing the cost of the project by following number of activities including scaling down redundancy, tracking budget, creating plan for the utilization of budget within the project (Too and Weaver 2014). Moreover, it is found that project management can be able to deliver commercial improvement performance, efficiency as well as assists in reducing cost only if the project is planned successfully in the planning phase of the project.

Key consideration at the conceptualization stage of the project

The key considerations that are required at the project conceptualization stage mainly include the assumptions that are required to be made for the project. The considerations include:

Estimation of time: Time of the project must be properly estimated during the conceptualization phase of the project as the entire success of the project depends on time estimation. If the entire project is finished within the time that is estimated then the project will be considered successful (De Carvalho et al. 2015). Thus, it is quite important to consider the time estimation effectively.

Budget estimation: The budget of the project must be approved by the higher authority and it must be properly considered within the project conceptualization phase, as the entire project execution is dependent on the budget that is approved (Marcelino-Sadaba et al. 2014).

The project lifecycle phases

Analyzing required resources: The resources of the project must be properly considered so that proper number of project resources can be assigned within the project for finishing the project within the expected time and budget.

Ability of writing project charter outlining commercial benefits, high level objectives

 It is quite necessary to write a project charter effectively in the initiation phase of the project that generally outlines various high-level objectives, commercial benefits as well as estimated ROI. It is found that ability of writing project charter is quite necessary for achieving success as it generally set out detailed information about project goals, roles and responsibilities and helps in identifying the main stakeholders who are associated with the project (Kucharska and Kowalczyk 2016). All this information including the commercial benefits as well as ROI is necessary for further progress of the project as without this information the project manager is not able to proceed with the project, which further helps in creating negative impact on the project.

Identifying and outlining cost, timeline, quality components and their linkage with strategic organizational goals.

  It is identified that the cost components of the project mainly include investments costs as well as operating costs. It is very much necessary to link the cost of the project with the strategic organizational goals so that the project cost can be estimated effectively as per the project need (Conforto et al. 2014).  Similarly, the components that are associated with timeline include schedule as well as timeline plans and it must be aligned with the strategic organization goals. This is done for estimating the time of the project as per the project requirement so that the entire can be finished within the expected deadline (Badewi 2016).In addition to this, the components of quality planning includes quality planning, quality assurance, quality control as well as quality control. The quality components must be properly aligned with the objectives as well as goals of the project so that proper quality can be maintained within the project.

Assessing project business case, commercial benefits as well as viability against the identifiable risks

 It is quite necessary to access the business case, commercial benefits as well as viability against the various identifiable risks so that the project can be completed successfully. It is identified that accessing business case is considered quite important for integral part of successful project management (Caniëls and Bakens 2015). This is because the business case of the project helps in outlining the rationale for undertaking the entire project for defining the parameters as well as for managing factors that generally get involved within the project itself. The commercial benefits related with the project assists in providing the idea about the factors that helps in driving the project towards success (Costantino, Di Gravio and Nonino 2015). Additionally, the project viability must be accessed against the identifiable risks of the project in order to determine the economic cost of the project. It is found that the economic benefits are a measure of the value that is delivered by the project to the society as a whole.

Tools and techniques for breaking down projects

Understanding and demonstrating knowledge of all project cycle

According to Ika (2015), project lifecycle is defined as a four-step process that is mainly followed by all the project managers while moving through different stages of project completion. The project management life cycle mainly includes four phases that are initiation, planning, execution as well as closure phase.  The various phases of the project life cycle are elaborated below:

Initiation phase: Initiation phase of the project is considered as the first phase of the project in which the activities that are required to be performed include development of business case, undertaking feasibility study as well as establishment of charter (Fernandes, Ward and Araujo 2015).

Planning phase: The next phase of the project life cycle is the planning phase of the project. In this phase, the project manager involves in creating project plan, resource plan, financial plan, risk plan, acceptance plan as well as communication plan of the project.

Execution phase:  In the execution phase of the project, the activities that are generally performed mainly include performing time management, cost management, quality management, risk management as well as issue management (Samset and Volden 2016).

Closing phase: In the closing phase of the project, the project manager needs to perform project closure so that the project will be closed.

Utilization of tools and techniques for breaking project into milestones

The tools and techniques that help in breaking down project in milestones, products as well as activities mainly include the following:

Work breakdown structure: The main purpose of the breakdown structure is to properly plan the entire project by breaking the key tasks as well as activities of the project into number of manageable as well as smaller units of work (Cagliano, Grimaldi and Rafele 2015).

Gantt charts: Gantt chart is considered as one of the horizontal bar that is utilized for scheduling each of the project activities. It is identified that each of the task is depicted as a block over time where the actual performance of the project is mainly recorded over real time as compared to the deadline that is planned.

Critical path analysis: Critical path analysis is one of the tool that that helps in effectively planning the activities of the project over time. It generally helps in arranging the activities of the project into proper sequence of events that generally helps in allowing a project to be finished in the much more efficient way (Calvo-Mora et al. 2015).

Mapping key activities against timelines and able to identify resources, skills and manpower requirements 

The role of project management in enabling competitive advantage

 It is quite important to map key activities against the project timeline in order to identify resources, skills as well as labour requirements of the project for effective execution of the project. It is found that if the timeline as well as resources of the project is properly estimated then it will be quite easier for the project manager to finish the project within the expected time by utilizing the resources of the project effectively (Fernandes, Ward and Araujo 2015). Time estimation generally helps in driving the deadline setting for planning as well as delivering the project that will generally create impact on the other people assessment on the reliability as well as competence level of the project manager. It also helps in determining the different pricing of contracts and hence the profitability of the project in context to commercial terms (Samset and Volden 2016). The project manager must properly assume proper labour requirements so that the tasks of the project can be finished within the expected budget and time.

Tools that are necessary for identifying as well as allocating roles and responsibilities

The tool that is used in order to identify as well as allocate roles and responsibilities within the project is the RACI matrix (Pollack and Adler 2015). It is found that RACI model is one of the straightforward tools that is generally utilized for identifying various roles and responsibilities that mainly helps in avoiding confusion over the various roles and responsibilities within the project. The acronym RACI mainly stands for the following:

Responsible: The person who is responsible for doing the task are categorized under the responsible section. They generally have the responsibility of completing the work.

Accountable: The person who is generally accountable for correct as well as thorough completion of the activities is generally considered under the accountable section.

Consult: The person who generally helps in providing information for the project mainly considered under the consulted section (Špundak 2014).

Informed: The person who generally keeps information about the project progress in a one-way communication are considered under the informed section.

Characteristics of high performance teams for setting objectives and for facilitating resolution of conflict within the project team

The characteristics of high performing team mainly include the following:

Empowerment: It is found that various policies, rules as well as procedures of the team are enabled for doing the work of the project quite effectively. It is found that the team have proper access of relevant information as well as resources of the project (Batselier and Vanhoucke 2015). They generally have proper skills that are very much necessary for succeeding.

Improving commercial efficiency with project management

Relationship and communication: It is found that the team members generally take risks, share their opinions as well as thoughts through communication. It is found that differences are generally valued which generally lead to team conflict (Pollack and Adler 2015).  It is found that high performing team of the project are mainly skilled in dealing with problems as well as challenges associated with project for maintaining human dignity.

Optimal productivity: A high performing team are mainly committed towards high standards as well as quality of the teamwork. They generally take pride in accomplishing the goals of the project and in meeting the project deadline. They have proper decision making as well as problem solving methods that generally assists in enhancing creativity as well as participation.

Morale: Morale is defined as the sense of pride as well as satisfaction that generally comes from belonging to the project team after accomplishment of the project work. Members of high performing teams are generally enthusiastic as well as confident (Fernandes, Ward and Araujo 2015). In addition to this, it is found that the team members generally have high spirit for the project work.

The methods that are necessary for resolving the conflict are as follows:

Preparation for resolution: The conflict within the team can be resolved by acknowledging the conflict, for discussing impact, agreeing to proper cooperative procedure as well as for making proper agreement on communication (Caniels and Bakens 2015).

Understanding the situation: Once the team is generally ready for resolving the conflict it is quite necessary to understand the entire situation appropriately. This can be generally done by clarifying positions, lists facts as well as assumptions and by analyzing the project into smaller groups.

Reaching agreement: It is found that all the parties of the project must understand the position of other team members and can be able to decide what decision as well as course are generally needed to be taken (Too and Weaver 2014).

The concepts and importance of effective project control

The importance of effective project control is elaborated below:

Scope: It is found that due to proper control the project, scope creep can be avoided within the project, which further helps in creating positive impact on the project.

 Deadline: If the project is entirely controlled then the entire project will gets finished within the expected deadline that is assumed by the higher authorities of the organization (Heldman 2018).

Costs: Due to proper control of the project, the entire project gets finished within the approved budget so that the organization does not need to face any type of financial challenges.

Reducing project costs with project management

Risks: It is quite important to keep the entire risks under control as in the event of an unforeseen eventuality as it will generally have effect on the achievement of various project targets (Hornstein 2015).

Identification and management of stakeholder expectations through appropriate reporting and communication

The stakeholder’s expectations are generally met through proper communication as well as reporting. It is found that communication as well as reporting both play a great role in informing the project stakeholders about the project progress, needs as well as requirements. If the project stakeholders are updated with information through reporting or communication on regular basis then they will be able to finish the entire project on time. As a result, their expectations can be easily met (Mir and Pinnington 2014).Their only expectation is proper support from the management of the organization they are generally progressing with the project and proper support will be provided to the stakeholders with the help of either communication or reporting.

Conclusion

 It can be concluded from the entire report that it is very much necessary to plan the initiation phase of the project effectively so that the entire project can be finished successfully. It is found that if the business plan as well as project activities are not defined properly within the initiation phase of the project then it will be quite difficult to manage the project. Thus the statement that the best time for stopping is the before you have initiated is correct because after the project is initiated with improper objectives and business plan then it will be quite difficult to drive the project towards success. The paper elaborates understanding about the project life cycle, characteristics of project stage, various aspects of project planning as well as risks and processes that are generally involved within the viability of the projects.

References

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