By integrated project management, we refer to the processes involved in a project which are collectively handled for the successful outcome of the project (Baber, et.al, 2017). There are different parts of the project which needs equal weight age and importance while they are being executed. During the course of the project there are many elements in the project which go neglected and not well addressed (Burke, 2013). Therefore through integrated project management the coordination among the different elements of the project are managed. There are many stakeholders who are involved in a project and they are all influenced by the success and failure of the project. These stakeholders need to be managed during the course of the (Crawford, 2014). The project also involves the usage of many resources which are a part of the project management. There are also some standards which are laid down by the organisation while they take up a project. In this situation the project elements need to be coordinated and collaborated for the desired project result. In this case study there are certain aspects which need to be changed. These changes need to be incorporated in the project.
There are many aspects of a project which need proper handling and management. The organisation works based on a particular structure. This organisational structure influences the work and success of a project in an organisation as well as the name which an organisation creates for itself (Larson, Gray, Danlin, Honig, & Bacarini, 2014). The organisational structure can make the workings in an organisation smoother and much easier. However there was a great flaw in the organisational structure of QCI. This organisational structure was not appropriate for the organisation. There were many inherent problems with this organisational system or structure. The distribution of power across the organisation and its functional units was a major drawback for the organisational projects. The authority failed in carrying out their organisational and management responsibilities. There are many departments in the organisation which work together to complete the entire process of the organisation. The different departments need to coordinate and collaborate their work so that the operations are smoothly executed. However the problem lies in the efficient coordination among departments. The inter departmental relationships which need to be built so that the organisation can function easily and run without much discontinuity, is missing in case of QCI. The organisation is engaged in multi functional work. This requires departmental integration of the various processes. This could not be assured by the organisation. The authoritative power of the managers under QCI is very less. The project managers lack enough authority to take their own decisions. Therefore the leadership among the senior officials is lacking. The project managers can be restricted in few cases as per the requirement of the situation. In case of the project, the project managers need full power to make all decisions. The project cannot be delivered ensuring a good quality of work if the project managers are not much efficient and effective in executing and implementing their decisions (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The project always has a deadline which might also be missed if the project managers are not in control of their authoritative power over their own projects. There are also some problems in QCI regarding their job roles and the required recruitment for the job positions. The QCI is a company which strangely involves the engineers in every departmental aspect. There are some departments like the finance and accounts departments which need to be handled or left completely in the hands of the accountants and professionally trained financial analysts o personnel. However in QCI it is observed that the engineers are taking up the roles of the accountants and the finance managers as well. This is an improper recruitment to a particular job position or for playing a specific job role. IT is technically difficult for the engineers to handle all the problems arising in the finance departments or settle the disputes regarding accounts and payments. The ICWA or the CAs must b made in charge of these departments. These people have academic training and professional knowledge along with expertise and experience in handling these departmental problems regarding accounts and finance. Hence they should be recruited to such job position for effective operation of the organisation. The engineers might be well trained to suit the position post their recruitment. But the engineers lack the expertise which is gained through years of work in the field. This management structure is a faulty one which is being followed by QCI. There are around 12 very large customers of the QCI. These customers cannot be handled very easily as they are large and have huge matters to tackle. The involvement of only 4 people to handle these 12 customers is an unrealistic and infeasible plan which needs to be changed (Turner, 2016). The 4 people are likely to make many mistakes in the course of the project as they are less in number and they have more pressure and work to handle. The involvement of more people into the process of handling these 12 customers would lead to better management of the process and chances of mistakes or disputes would be less in such cases (Heagney, 2016). The company runs on the basis of their customer support (Harrison & Lock, 2017). The customers are the foundation of any project. Therefore the customers need to be catered to very well. This company does not have enough officials to cater to the needs of their biggest customers. The customers can make or break an organisation if not handled with care. Thus the QCI is to make changes in their organisational and management process so that they can address the needs of their biggest customers. The customers need more attention so that they can be associated with the organisation for more years. The managers of the projects also face other problems like they do not have proper work division. The managers are over burdened with their allotted work. They feel the pressure of immense work load and are often not able to deliver the best productive outcome of their work. There are many instances where the project managers do not have their say regarding the project (Leach, 2014). The project is taken forward or cancelled by the other departments. The marketing team may head a project and take decisions over the managers. There are many stakeholders of a project but the main decisions regarding a project are taken by the project managers. This mechanism in many cases is missing in the organisational set up of QCI. In case of this organisation of QCI there are certain decisions which as per the Vice Director of the organisation must be taken by the marketing team rather than the project managers. The project managers know their project best but they are deprived of the full authority and control over their project. The marketing team and the people in the team are expected to have more idea and knowledge about the currently prevailing market rates and the price trends. This is however not a very positive and healthy step taken by the organisational heads or the management (Kerzner, 2018). The project managers must be solely responsible and the highest decision making authority in case of their projects. The project managers can be assisted by the knowledge and the expert advice of the marketing team. The final decision making capability must lie in the hands of the project managers itself. The most important and operation changing decisions must be made by the managers in charge of handling the main project.
There are many problems which are a part of concern for the QCI. The major drawbacks are in the communication process of the organisation. The organisation does not have a very good and coordinated communication network within the organisation or even with the stakeholders outside the organisation. The teams which are functional within the QCI must create or build a form of communication which can be effective for handling a project. The inter departmental relationships are very important for the organisation so that they can integrate their actions. No person or department or team can work on its own. There are many important tasks to complete and much to accomplish for the managers of the projects. The managers spent a lot of their valuable time in trying to communicate and build better relations between the different team members and departments. Communication is vital for the organisations, which is missing in QCI. The vision of the organisation can be conveyed to the different members of the organisation when there is an effective communication system within the organisation and also outside the organisation. The ideas which the authority has about the organisation are very different from the individual team members. This results in difference in organisational goals and personal career goals. This results in the misinterpretation and miscommunication among the organisations. There are different opinions which need to be heard and voiced. This is possible only in case of an effective communication system. This is however not present in QCI which is thus a change that is needed. There are many seminars, meetings and conferences which are held to communicate such ideas across the organisations. The teams fail to discuss and exchange thoughts and views which impacts the final outcome of the organisation. The administration of the organisation is in the hands of the managers who need to have the required leadership skills. This is missing among the managers of the QCI. They have failed in accomplishing their tasks and also promoting the marketing and sales. The team work is not well planned and organised. The lack of communication led to the managers in coordinating the team’s work (Project Management Institute, 2017). The tasks have to be divided among the different team members in an organisational project. The managers are supposed to do this in every project. The administration in QCI is completely a failure due to lack of good and competent managers. The main problem area is that of the organisational structure and its management. This can be uplifted under the new and changed organisational set up. The goals of the organisation are not well set prior to the initiation of the projects which leads to the failure of these projects as well. The employment of the wrong individuals for the improper posts is another drawback of the organisation. The performances of the different managers and the followers or the subordinate employees are needed under the organisational structure of QCI. The lack of proper communication can also lead to many conflicts which can be resolved again through effective communication (Stark, 2015). The specialised and the experts must be delegated for the required services. The CAs and the ICWAs need to be hired for the finance and the accounts related works. The marketing team can form an advisory committee for the project manager but they cannot head the projects. The Research & Development teams should be working continuously towards the betterment of the organisations.
In case of any project which is undertaken by various organisations, there are mainly 4 to 5 stages. The different stages in a life cycle of a project are Initiation, Planning, Execution, Evaluation and Closure. The first stage is that of project initiation. The initiation refers to that phase of the project in which the idea regarding the project is developed. The main concept for starting a project is developed and then it is planned (Too & Weaver, 2014). Thus the next stage after the initiation of a project is its planning. The planning stage is the most significant stage. All that has to be planned and decided takes place in this stage. This is most crucial phase because based on this phase the further execution of the project takes place. The planning is followed by the main execution phase. The project is executed or the plans are implemented in reality during this phase. It is seen that the execution phase can lead to many project failures as the management and the employees have failed to execute the project plan as made by the project managers (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). The next stage which comes after the execution phase is mainly that of evaluation. In this evaluation phase the main task is that of evaluating the success or failure or mainly the performance of the project. The evaluation determines the project outcome. Finally after these four stages the project comes to an end which is referred to as the closure phase. In case of this project of the QCI, the first stage is successfully accomplished where the idea for the project is initiated. After the project is started the first stage would be that of planning from where the main problems of QCI begin. The managers of the organisation who handle the projects are not given the complete power to take necessary project decisions. His makes the planning more delayed and a slower process. The execution phase is also not good for the QCI. The people who are in charge of the execution of the project are not well trained and suitable for the purpose. The engineers who are recruited for the finance and accounts departments are the ones who fail in handling such job roles. The other side of this phase is that the managers are burdened beyond limit by their work pressure and so they often fail to exhibit the best productive outcomes. The following stage is of evaluation where the effectiveness of the planning and execution of the project is analysed and the results are judged on the basis of the outcome. The project is said to be successful when the outcome is in line with the project objective with which the project had been initiated. On the other hand there are project objectives which may not be fulfilled during the course of the project. In such cases, the project is a failure. The last stage when the project ends is the close of the project for the organisation. The project is documented so that it can be referred to in future. The developments to the prior project plan is possible
In the integrated change control of a project the different aspects of the project are reviewed (Braglia & Frosolini, 2014). The various changes that have been suggested for the project include the change of the organisational structure, change of the recruitment pattern, reduction of the job duties of managers, improvement of communication process, etc. For all this there is a need for the change process. There are certain changes suggested but these need to be approved by the management before implementation. The deliverables might be changed as well as the process of the operations. The assets, documents involved in a project, the plan of the project management, the communication process, the disposition, etc. are all subject to changes. The project documents or the project deliverables are subject to approval for any alterations as it would directly impact the business of the organisation. The advantage of the integrated change control is that it helps the changes that have been documented to be used for further works in future in an integrated form (Vanhoucke, Coelho & Batselier, 2016). The risks of the project would also be reduced under integrated project change control. The overall aim of the project is considered here under the integrated approach towards the change control.
There are several changes which have been suggested for the project of QCI. Among the various changes that have been suggested it is very important to find out how justified these suggested changes are. The first change of the organisational structure may be justified but it is not very feasible to attain within such a short span of time when the project is taking place. The next change of having the CAs and the ICWAs for the accounts and finance jobs is justified because the engineers are not a proper recruitment for such job positions (Zheng, et.al, 2014). The next change of reducing the pressure of work on the managers of the projects is also justified as the more the burden the greater it is likely to perform poorly 9 Project Management Institute, 2013). The other changes are that of having more personnel to attend the 12 big customers which are also true and justified again. This is because when less people attend more customers they make mistakes. Further the change in the process of communication across the organisation has been suggested. This is very important for any organisation and for all kinds of projects. It is never possible to execute the work without proper internal communication (Project Management Institute, 2013). Thus the communication can be improved only through better means for conveying the messages and ideas. There is a need for a proper designed and planned communication network within the organisation so that all inter departmental relationships are handled and maintained properly. The work in the organisations is made smoother and easier through the building of an effective organisational structure.
Conclusion
The integrated project management is important for all the organisations as it gives enough scope and time for the project to analyse all its different aspects and finally move ahead with the project. The different stages in the life cycle of a project are also analysed in the light of the integrated approach. The QCI has many change requests suggested among which some are justified and need to be changed in future for further execution of the project idea in the same set up or slightly altered environment. The changes in communication to organisational structure are all subject to integrated change control as these changes could make the project outcomes better. The managerial roles and the leadership qualities among the managers need further development for better project handling capabilities. These factors which are requested for change can make the project a better one and so their changes are required and justified in terms of QCI case study.
Reference
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