Introduction
Project management is the application of knowledge, tools, skills and techniques to project activities to meet the requirements within specified time period, cost and quality (What is Project Management? 2018). It is the process of evaluating the issue and develops an effective, time bound solution to attain sustainable result to the problem. The current report is based on the critical success factors of project management. Success of project management demand effective knowledge about the factors, well defined management and efficient results. The goal of this assignment is to analyse the major factors which contributes in the success of project management. Brief analysis of different factors such as time, cost and budget has been analysed. However the current project management aspects reveals that factors such as project planning, scheduling, leadership, sustainability, communication, goal setting etc are crucial. The above mentioned factors have been analysed and evaluated in the study. Different researches have evaluated different factors resulting in the success of project. The current study will undertake an in-depth analysis to evaluate these factors. Past literature review will be undertaken to identify the focus of different study and evaluate what critical factors have been considered significant in order to ensure the success of project management.
Project management is a process of efficiently dealing with a short term project in a structured and well managed manner. The major factors associated with the discipline includes, scope, cost, time and quality. According to Caccamese & Bragantini, (2012) success of the project was traditionally associated with the ability of a manager to deliver the project objectives within predefined scope, quality, cost and time. This concept of iron triangle helped in developing a significant base for project expectations (Caccamese & Bragantini, 2012). These measurable skills focused on four core aspects of project. Time focused on the project duration. The traditional belief of project success was directly associated with time schedule. Completion of project in stipulated time was critical success factor. Budget was another crucial aspect for project success. The project manager is expected to ensure that the cost of the project was within stipulated budget thus creating a significant check on project cost (Haughey, 2010). Quality of the final project was the third factor which stated that the final project outcome must be of the same quality as was promised by the manager. This principle states that there must no gap within actual and expected quality of the project. The overall evaluation evaluated the core expectation of successful project however these expectations are challenged and criticised by the scholars. The following analysis will focus on examining different success factors which has been analysed and discussed my different authors and scholars.
Project management is the discipline which uses established procedures, principles along with policies so that project can be managed efficiently from starting to end. It is bounded with responsibilities that to deliver the outcome on a time in expected budget. It operates in an effective manner by adopting a planned and structured approach which results in ensuring growth and success of the projects. Different factors contribute in ensuring the success of the project (Hughes, 2010). Project management procedure and principles have significant impact on the success of the projects because it provides a strategic alignment to the work. Moreover, it ensures that what is being delivered is right and offer real value against the business opportunity. Effective leadership and management of the project is another crucial factor which leads towards effective competition of the project. Leadership is helpful in removing the bottlenecks and inspires the entire team to perform in a better way (The Project Manager of the Future, 2018). Delivering of quality projects is a challenging task in the current competitive business environment because the projects cannot be managed in a very tight budget as well as compressed schedule, it has adverse impact on the quality. Project management ensures quality aspects aligning it with systematic planning at every stage of the task. Therefore, it reveals that the project can be effective in the situation of availability of skilled resources and maximum time period because that would not affect the quality component.
A project needs the effective planning, availability of resources which has direct impact on the success/failure of the projects. Time management, sustainability, external environment, selection of better project management techniques etc. are the critical factors which has tremendous contribution in the success of specified task. The detailed evaluation of major critical success factors of project has been discussed by referring to different past researches and literature on the topic.
According to Thi & Swierczek, (2010) Cost, time, customer satisfaction and technical performance were the critical factors analysed in past studies that have significant role in the success/failure of the project. Undertaking research on infrastructure projects the author evaluated the key factors contributing in project success. A sample of 239project members and managers involved in Vietnam projects helped in assessing the data for the study. A well structured and in-depth analysis of the topic was undertaken. The evaluation concluded that manager competencies, member competencies and external stability are the factors which share positive relationship with success criteria of project management. These factors provide significant strength and efficiency to the project execution. Competent members are the resources who contributes in project competition, competencies contributes in effective planning, execution and implementation while external stabilities helps in minimizing the impact of risk on the project. A competent manager is the key resource to evaluate and monitor project lifecycle while focusing on efficient progress. The overall impact of the stated factors help in ensuing success and lack of these factors may result on project failure as well.
Further, KianiMavi & Standing, (2018) undertook an in depth research and the findings of the paper revealed that construction projects lack effective categorization of success/failure factors in project management. Using technical application of DEMATEL method to evaluate the success factors five major categorization of the factors was done. The analysis conducted research to identify interdependence while examining weights allotted to the factors. The sample of 26 project managers from Australian working for construction industry was selected. The findings revealed that external environment and sustainability were the cause factors while project management was the effect factor. It was evaluated that top management and sponsor support is one of the crucial aspects which is weighted highest in the category, in addition to this stakeholder’s expectation and end user’s restrictions are effective factors which ensures project success in construction industry. The evaluation of the study created a well defined impact on understating different aspects of project management issues which affect the success aspect of the same. Therefore, it shows that cost factor is important for the triumph of the projects because less cost is lead to success and vice versa. In this manner, the better combination of the cost, scope and time is required for the effectiveness so that quality cannot hamper (KianiMavi & Standing, 2018).
Ceptureanu, (2016) undertook the study for evaluating success of infrastructure projects and to analyze the issues which affect the success and failure of these projects. The research focused on collecting the data from projects which are funded by European funds and were undertaken in Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia and Kosovo. The data was collected from the team of consultants working for the projects and also consultants working for international projects. The empirical data collected on the subject helped in revealing that effective team and technology is crucial in attaining success and growth of the projects. The analysis revealed that leadership styles of project manager are the most critical factor for project success. The findings reflected the significance of management style in the success of project for the long run growth. The author revealed that ineffective leadership may lead to failure of project even of sophisticated project management tools are implemented According to Ceptureanu, (2016) infrastructure projects demands significant contribution in terms of function and there is significant research gap in the aspect however factors related to leadership styles lead in success/failure of the project. Hence the evaluation focuses on the need of effective leadership as critical success factor for infrastructure projects.
Besteiro, de Souza Pinto & Novaski, (2015) undertook the analysis to analyse the variables which contributes in the success of project management. A structured analysis was undertaken to understand and categorize various factors affect project management success and failure. The classification of variables was done in four major groups; management skills, critical success factors, monitoring and control and lessons learned according to PMI methodology. The application of statistical testing and data analysis it was revealed that project management methodology and principles are critical for undertaking successful projects. However communication at different stages of project management helps in efficiently ensuring progress and control. Moreover time and budget were analysed as critical factors from lessons learned drivers. Evaluation of project scope and effective decision making aspects were also considered critical for success of projects (Besteiro, de Souza Pinto & Novaski, 2015). Hence the evaluation reflected that both hard and soft skills are critical for success/failure of the projects.
Sanchez, Terlizzi & de Moraes, (2017) undertook the resreach for the success of IT projects. A multilevel analysis was undertaken to evaluate and understand the critical spects of project success and failure. Author revealed that development of efficient information system creates a competitive edge for the projects, however managing time and cost factors were stated critical success aspects. Terlizzi & de Moraes, (2017) argued the Cost and Time Project Management Success is critical for project success. The overall findings revealed that the cost of project cost can be reduced with the help of the allocating the right people because it enhances the quality and productivity of the work. Hence, if the productivity is maximizing then the chances of success of projects are increases. The success of the project can be affected by better composition of cost and skills because these are the important factors. In addition to this effective communication is significant in thus aspect as well. Developing effective communication plan contributes in schedule planning and management. Nonetheless, Sanchez, Terlizzi & de Moraes, (2017) argued that more time constrains affects the quality because due to time bound workers perform the task in quick manner. In this regard, the workers not focus on the quality due to deadlines and ultimately it reduces the quality and leads the project to failure.
Kanter & Walsh (2004) asserted that allocation of right resources at right time is useful to maximize the productivity of the projects and these can be done with the help of the pre planning of the estimated resources. The research revealed that organizational skills and past failure aspects need to analysed and developed by implementing effective change to ensure project success. Facilitating change to minimize the negative impact of project limitation was key contribution of the author. Bayiley & Teklu, (2016) undertook the study to analyse the success factors for EU development cooperation projects. The four CSFs analysed were intellectual capital, sound project case, key manpower competency and effective stakeholder engagement. The findings revealed that strong policy, strong local ownership, motivated team, effective planning and efficient rules as key success factors. The study ranked intellectual capital and team management as high ranked aspects while consultation from stakeholders was underscored factor in the analysis.
Zwikael, & Globerson, (2006) conducted the research to differentiate factors of project success from that of project failure. The study undertook the field study of 282 project managers to reveal that overall project planning, scheduling, communication resource allocation and project plan development were the major factors which ensured a project success. Among these schedules planning, communication planning and time management aspects are critical for the success. Risk management and resource planning however low impact has on overall project success.
Conclusions
On the basis of discussions, it can be concluded that effective project management depends on the contribution of all necessary factors like cost, time, and sustainability. Project management is important for the smooth running of the task. Further, it can be concluded that time management is one of the needed factors for the success of the projects because time bound provides the effectiveness in the work. Moreover, it is also concluded that the core principles of time cost and quality is critical however soft skills such as communication, planning, team management, leadership etc are equally critical. Cost and time both are interlinked together because less time leads low cost and vice versa. Furthermore, it can be concluded that for the completion of big projects with minimum cost, cost management tools are required like BPR. But for the large project, skilled resources are required which are demanded high prices and leads the cost high in compare to small projects. At the end, it is also concluded that external environment like weather conditions, social environment affects the efficiency and success of the projects. So, before commencement of the project, external factors should be analyzed because they affect the projects during the planning phase. Furthermore, external factors are not under the control of project team if they are arising during the stage of completion. Further, at the time of completion, only two options remain that either closes the project or proceeds with uncertainties. So, it is required to better management of time along with cost to deliver the quality of work.
References
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