Week Twelve - Project Management

Weekly Questions - Project Management


1. Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.

The triple constraint involves making tradeoffs between among different aspects of a project, a Project Manager manages - These 3 variables are among time, cost and scope. You cannot change one without changing the others and it is inevitable in a project life that there will be changes. It is important to consider these variables within project management as there is a high failure rate in IT projects (30 - 70%) These 3 varibels will ensure a project is on time, within budget and meets the business, and customers requirements.
 

  

2. Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning

 

There are to main charts used within project planning – The first one I will discuss is a PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart is a graphical network model that depicts a projects tasks and the relationships between these tasks. It defines the dependency between project tasks before the tasks are scheduled. In the diagram boxes display various attributes for the project such as schedule and the arrows indicate the one task that is dependant on the start or completion of another task. The critical path is the path from the start to the finish of the project that passes through all the tasks that are critical to the completion of the project.

The second chart is a more simple design - A Gantt chart is a simple bar chart that depicts tasks against a calendar. In a Gantt chart the tasks are listed vertically against the schedule which is horizontal. This particular diagram is ideal for representing the schedule of a project.

 

3.Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure succes

 

The Three Primary Areas a Project Manager must focus on to ensure success is

·      People

·      Communication

·      Change.

Managing the people involves completing the project and any conflicts that may arise during the duration of the project. Managing people is one of the more difficult factors in ensuring the smooth completion of the project. A project manger not only has to manage the stakeholders of the project but ensure everyone within the project has a full understanding of what is required of them and are all trying to achieve a common goal. Project Mangers need to ensure they can resolve conflicts and maintain the steady progress of a project. 

Communication is the key to a successful project. Formal communication is a crucial part of success and good communicators will get the job done. A Project Manager needs to ensure they develop a communication plan. A communication plan is where the manager distributes timely, accurate and meaningful information such as time, cost, quality and scope. A successful Project Managers is constantly communicating to everyone involved within a project and constantly updating stakeholders and their team the progress of the project. They are constantly receiving feedback and ensuring any adjustments are made to ensure their project runs smoothly and effectively.  

Change and adapting to change is another critical aspect of project management. Change can come in the form of a crisis, market shift or technological development. A successful project manager will learn how to adapt and even predict changes. Scalability is needed over the course of the project - due to changes, which are inevitable. Project Managers will experience challenges and must know how to effectively handle these as they arise. Effective change management is a critical core competency and Project Managers have to be able to adapt to their ever-changing environments. Change management ensures the evolution, composition and policy management of the design and implementation of a system.

4. Outline 2 reasons why projects fail and two reasons why projects suceed.

Project Managers have to ensure they follow the 3 primary areas discussed above, while taking into consideration the time, cost and scope of a project. Projects can fail if Managers do not follow these guidelines.

Some reasons a project might fail could be due to a poor scope. Having a poorly set out scope for your project can confuse others contributing to your project. A scope refers to the work that must be completed to deliver a product with the specified features and functions. A project scope statement includes constraints, assumptions and requirements that have to be made clear and explained to all individuals with a project. If the scope of the project is not adequately planned the final product won’t be achieved. This could be due to either not meeting the project requirements or the time and cost of the project have been wasted. With a poor scope the designated work will take longer than initially estimated and may even lead to higher costs. An effective scope is needed for a project to achieve the desired results.


Another reason a Project might fail is due to insufficient project management. If a project is lacking a project manger this can lead to devastating issues for a project, such as unreasonable time, cost and scope. Between 30-70% of projects fail because a project won’t be delivered upon schedule, come in over budget or don’t deliver the scope initially agreed upon. A good project manager needs to ensure they continue to manage the people involved, communication and the change over the course of the project.

To ensure a project is successful a key area to focus on is good communication. If a project is communicated clearly and effectively - everyone involved will have a greater understanding of what is require of them and align those requirements with the projects overall goal. This will result in all participants’ feelings as they are contributing to the project and boost overall moral - leading to a successful implemented project and finally a successfully completed one.

Another area of key importance is for a Project Manager to be a good decision maker. Decision making structures involve initially choosing the correct individuals for the project (people), having a set budget in place (cost) and ensuring set goals are established (time) while effectively communicating what is required for the project to be successful (scope). Good Project Managers are constantly reviewing their project and ensuring the decisions made are the most effective choice - Managers have to be ready for any changes which will arise within their project and adapt to these changes successfully.