Efficiently Managing Projects: Project Management Methodologies For Organizations

Importance of Project Management

Question:

Discuss About The Projects To Efficiently Manage The Projects?

Project Management refers to the discipline that allows the Project manager along with the leadership associated with the projects to efficiently manage the projects. There are principles, rules and guidelines that are covered under this discipline that assist the management in the overall project management and its business. The number of projects and the types of the projects that are carried out in the organizations may differ from each other. In order to manage the project as per the project factors, it is necessary to apply the accurate set of the guidelines and rules. There are project management methodologies that have been created in order to manage the projects and ensure that the project objectives are achieved (Kerzner, 2009).

There are three different organizations that have been covered and the report includes the recommendation for these organizations in terms of the project management methodology that shall be applied.

The project management methodology that has been recommended for organization A is Projects In Controlled Environment (PRINCE2). The nature of business that the organization deals in to is financial services and sector. There are 80 employees that are associated with the organization and there are not many different locations that the business operates from. The organizational conditions and factors along with the nature of projects that it undertakes are reasons behind the selection of the project management methodology as PRINCE2 (Hedeman and Seegers, 2009).

There are various project management methodologies that have been defined for the management of different types of the project. The select of the adequate project management methodology to be applied and implemented in the organizations shall be done to the senior management and leadership. There are various processes and methods that are involved in the project management such as, planning of the methodology, selection and implementation.

The management must hold a discussion with the lower level managers, heads of the departments along with the operations staff members. However, the final selection and implementation shall be left with the senior management only.

PRINCE2 is the project management methodology that has been selected for the project. There are various steps that will be involved in the implementation of the methodology in the organization. The steps along with their description are listed below.

• The implementation of the project management methodology as PRINCE2 in the organization may have certain impacts on the projects and the business operations running in the organization. It will be necessary to secure the organizational information by creating the backups.
• The number of the projects running in the organization shall be included in the list of projects and the specific projects roles and activities shall be highlighted against every project.
• The current project status shall be specified against every project.
• There are various phases or stages that are present in case of the PRINCE2 methodology such as starting, directing, and controlling and many more. Similarly, every project will have its specific set of stages and phases. It will be necessary to map the projects stages with the PRINCE2 stages so that a strategic alignment is developed (Randolph, 2013).
• The identification and the assessment of the specific project risks along with their likelihood and impact must be analyzed. Similarly, the project conflicts and disputes shall be studied.
• The management shall carry out reviews and inspections to make sure that the implementation process is adequately done.
• The status reports on the implementation process shall be submitted to the organization’s CEO on a weekly basis.

• The implementation process may be poorly affected due to the absence of any standards.
• Management of the changes that will be introduced with the decision to implement PRINCE2 may be difficult.
• There may be adverse impacts on the implementation process due to the presence of an unskilled Project Manager (Muller and Turner, 2007).
• Implementation of all of the activities at once may lead to failures.

• The organizational policies shall be reviewed and the set of best practices shall be identified before carrying on with the implementation process.
• A change management plan shall be created in advance to manage all of the changes.
• An analysis of the skills of the project manager along with the mapping of the same with the required set of skills for the project shall be done.
• A phased approach shall be used for the implementation of the PRINCE2 methodology in the organization.

• The methodology is widely recognized in the market which would allow the organization to have increased business (O’Leary, 2009).
• There are no separate tools and equipment that are required for the implementation of PRINCE2 in the organization. There will not be any issues associated with compatibility and integration which would make the implementation process easier.
• PRINCE2 methodology involves a lot of documentation. This will assist the organization in the execution of the projects in the future as well.
• The risks that will be associated with the projects will be managed easily so that the project objectives and goals are met.

Organization B is a company that has its area of business in the building society and there are around 600 employees that are currently associated with the organization. As a result, the number of projects that are handled by the organization along with the risk areas that may be associated with each of these projects will be high. Due to enhanced number of risks that may come up and the nature of business, the recommended project management methodology for the organization is Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). 

Selecting the Right Project Management Methodology

The implementation of PMBOK in the organization will involve a lot many project management activities. These activities shall be handled and executed by the internal team in the organization comprising of the Project Managers of every project, heads of the department, CEO of the organization along with the board of the directors.  (Pmi, 2013).

The CEO and the board of the directors must provide the necessary approvals and the activities associated with selection and planning, analysis and implementation shall be carried out by the rest of the members in the internal team.

The implementation of PMBOK in the organization will comprise of many different activities and steps. These are as listed below.

• As a first step, there shall be an implementation schedule that shall be designed which shall list down all the activities along with the respective dates on which the implementation process shall be carried out.
• The rest of the estimates and parameters associated with the projects shall be studied which shall include the budget of the project along with the scope and details of the team members.
• There shall be five phases that shall be used and must be present in the implementation of the PMBOK methodology in the organization.
• Initiation Phase: In this phase, the internal team must carry out a feasibility study on the implementation of PMBOK in the organization and must present a charter for the same.
• Planning Phase: The estimates regarding the implementation process along with the risk areas shall be identified in this area (Mirza, Pourzolfaghar and Shahnazari, 2013).
• Execution Phase: The methodology shall be communicated to the projects and its implementation shall be done across all the project activities and operations.
• Control Phase: The internal team must carry out reviews and inspections in order to control the process of implementation and highlight the specific deviations.
• Closure Phase: The entire set of activities covered during the process of implementation must be documented in a formal report and shall be submitted to the CEO and the board of directors.
• The employees of the organization must provide their feedback on the changes and modifications.

• The number of steps and phases that are involved in PMBOK are a lot many. Implementation of such processes in case of small projects may not be easy.
• With the involvement of an unskilled Project Manager, the process of implementation may not be completed successfully. There is a lot of accountability on the Project Manager in case of PMBOK which may suffer due to unskilled manager.
• The future projects may not be able to gain reference from the PMBOK methodology as there is lesser documentation that is involved in the projects that are managed by PMBOK.

• Most of the projects in the sector of Building Societies are huge and long-term. There will be lesser chances of the execution of any short-term or smaller project by the organization. In case of a small project, the Business management must form s strategic alignment in advance and must also carry out a feasibility analysis in advance.
• The selection of the project managers shall be done adequately on the basis of their respective managerial, technical and operational skills sets and knowledge.
• There shall be documentation done separately at the organizational level and the same shall be made available and accessible to the employees of the organization (Kock, Heising and Gemunden, 2016).

• There are various knowledge areas that are associated with the project management methodology as PMBOK. It is because of this reason that the projects will be managed from every single area and will cover all the possible risks and concern areas.
• The management and handling of the problems, issues, conflicts, disputes and risks that will be associated with the project will be reduced.
• The business units often look to expand and enhance the number of customers along with the projects that are associated with such units. The same may happen in case of the organization B as well. These processes and expansion of the organization will be made easy with the aid of the involvement of PMBOK in the organization.
• The implementation of PMBOK in the organizations will make sure that the standard sets of practices are followed. It will also make sure that the ethical and professional codes of conduct are followed.

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is being used in the Organization C that has its line of business as technical services and solutions. The numbers of employees that are engaged with the organization are 1200. There have been many changes and transformations that have taken place in the area of technology in the recent years and it is estimated that such changes will take place for a longer period of time. There are various projects that the organization is currently executing which are small, medium and large scale projects.

Due to the nature of business of the organization along with the set of activities that are carried out, it is essential that the project management methodology that is applied in this case is flexible and has the ability to adapt to the project factors that are associated with each of the projects.

After analyzing all of the project features along with the organization structure, it has been recommended that PMBOK is the project management methodology that shall be used and implemented in this case.

PMBOK is a project management methodology that is flexible and adaptable in nature. There are different phases that are associated with the PMBOK methodology that can be enhanced as per the specific elements of the projects.

Also, in the case of organization C, there is a great involvement of the customers in the organization. The primary motive of the organization is to keep its customers satisfied and to maintain utmost levels of transparency with the customers. It is due to this reason that the entities that shall be associated with the execution and completion of PMBOK related activities in the organization shall include the senior management along with the customers associated with the projects. The customers shall be informed about the methodology and their feedback shall be obtained.

Project Management Methodologies for three Organizations

The implementation plan that has been defined for the organization has been created as per the organization requirements and needs along with the project factors.

• In the first step, the implementation team must obtain the vision and mission of the organization and shall also collect the project goals and objectives of each of the projects associated with the organization. All of this information shall be studied and analyzed and a strategic alignment between the organization and all these projects shall be created for successful implementation of the methodology.
• There shall be an identification measure that shall be carried out to understand the existing management activities being carried out along with the effort that will be required for the implementation of PMBOK.
• The specific efforts that would be necessary to be applied by each of the project team and the Project Manager shall also be calculated.
• The implementation of PMBOK in the organization will be done in five different phases as initiation, planning, execution, control and closure. A work breakdown structure shall be created to identify these activities and the sub-activities that will be involved and will be executed in every stage. It shall then determine the time and effort that will be necessary and the implementation process shall begin.
• There are certain sets of organizational policies and practices that are required to be followed along with the set of regulations and legal policies. All of these rules and guidelines must be defined and the implementation team must adhere to the same during the implementation of PMBOK in the organization (Peslak, 2012).
• Once the initial round of the implementation process is carried out, a feedback shall be obtained from the customers and the operational staff members of the organization.
• The comments that are received in the feedback process shall be integrated and the final implementation round shall be executed.
• A final report shall be presented and submitted to the senior management as the final step.

• Implementation of the PMBOK processes in case of small projects may not be easy. Due to the number of steps and phases that are involved.
• PMBOK is a methodology that lays a lot of responsibility and accountability on the Project Managers that are assigned too every project. The implementation of this methodology in the organization will also be highly dependent upon the skills of the Project Manager.
• Due to the lack of the documentation in case of PMBOK, the future projects may not be able to gain references and lessons from the projects that will be executed by the company.

• There are various projects that will be carried out by the organization that may be small scale, medium or large scale projects. In order to gain benefits from the PMBOK methodology in case of small scale projects, it will be required to define the strategies and plans in advance and the feasibility study shall also be executed in advance.
• The Project Managers that will be assigned to the projects carried out by the organization must be done on the basis of the specific project needs and the skill set of the manager in the areas of management and technology.
• An external team shall be deployed for carrying out the documentation in the projects so that the future projects executed in the organization may take advantage from the mistakes in the past (Greenburger, 2016).

• The customer will be contacted at frequent intervals in this case. This will enhance the customer engagement and trust in the process and the quality of the project results and deliverables will also improve. This is due to the reason that the customer feedback will be incorporated and the risks associated with the projects will be handled in a better manner (Ayiri and Kudzanayi, 2017).
• The probability of the risks will also come down as the risks will be known in advance and the adequate prevention and control measures will be taken.
• The performance of the organization will improve as the quality of the deliverables will improve and the project objectives will be met successfully.
• The implementation of PMBOK in the organizations will make sure that the standard sets of practices are followed. It will also make sure that the ethical and professional codes of conduct are followed.
• The business units often look to expand and enhance the number of customers along with the projects that are associated with such units. The same may happen in case of the organization C as well. These processes and expansion of the organization will be made easy with the aid of the involvement of PMBOK in the organization.
• The levels of employee satisfaction along with the customer satisfaction will also improve.

Conclusion

The projects that are carried out in the organizations are made up of different elements and components. There are various human and non-human resources that are associated with the projects and also there are varied requirements that are also required to be accomplished in the projects. It is because of the involvement of so many different entities that the need for project management methodologies was felt by the organizations. There are different management methodologies that may be selected and applied in the projects on the basis of the project factors and elements. In the report, there are organizations A, B and C that have been analyzed and the project management methodologies recommended to these organizations are PRINCE2, PMBOK and PMBOK respectively. The recommendation has been provided on the basis of the organization structure, number of employees, operational areas, nature of business and several other factors. The implementation of these methodologies in the organizations will ensure that their goals and objectives are met and the success rate associated with the projects is also improved.

References

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