Project And Portfolio Management: An Overview

Project And The Portfolio Management

Discuss about the Project And The Portfolio Management.

Project management and the project methodologies are the important part of managing and  developing the projects in the organization. In this study the different aspects of the project and the portfolio management. This also includes the system thinking tools and their roles in the project management. The importance of the project management life cycle along with the system engineering is also discussed in this paper along with the classification of the manual and the electronic medium for managing of the project management process.

1. LO1: Relevance of the system thinking in the project and the portfolio management.
2. Summery: The system thinking is an important part of the project management. In the project management process the system thinking provides the information that will help in the decision making in the project management life cycle. Some of the system thinking processes includes the processing of the data from the previously published journals and the articles, analysis of those data, decision making process in the organization and brainstorming.
3. Evidence: It has been found out that the proper system thinking processes helps in the decision making processes in the organization. The lack of the right decision making in the organization can lead to the mismanagement of the organization. The brainstorming process will help to come to the right conclusion along with that taking up the best option for the organization.
4. LO2: Different system thinking tools used by the project and portfolio managers.
5. Summery: There are different system thinking tools that can be used in the project and the portfolio management. Some of the system thinking tools are brainstorming tools, casual loop diagram, behavior over time graph. Graphical function diagram and the structure thinking process are the structure thinking tools which are also included in the system thinking tools. These tools can be used by the projects managers in order to make the decisions in the processes. However, it has been found out that some of the managers in the organization are not using the system thinking tools in the business process. In that case, lack of management can be seen.
6. Evidence: It has been found out that the system thinking tools helps in the gathering and managing of the information related to the management of the process.  Certain difference can be seen between the process that  uses the system thinking tools and the processes that are not using the system thinking tools. However, the application of the system thinking tools are not  the only necessary thing for management of the project in a correct way. Along with the system thinking tool the application of the right project management methodology is important.
7. LO3: Relevance of the system engineering in the project cases.
8. Summery : The system engineering is an important aspect of the management of the project. The relevance of the system engineering lies on the development of the project in a way so that it can deliver the right outcome. The main function of the system engineering to  develop the connection between the business process unit in the organization and the technical unit in the organization. In order to develop the successful project in the organization, the  synchronization between the business unit of the organization and the technical unit of the organization  is important. The system engineering helps in this synchronization. The effective communication between these two units will help in the effective  sharing of the knowledge. The knowledge sharing will help the processes of the business to run in a more effective way.
9. Evidence: It has been found out that the technical processes are dependent on the business processes , similarly, the business processes are also dependent on the technical processes. The proper management of the communication between these two sections will help to grow the project in the business organization in a more accurate way. The synchronization is important as it will make theses two units to know the progresses of the processes  being conducted in the two unit.
10. LO4: Relevance of the system engineering processes and methodologies in the development of the project management process.
11. Summery: The system engineering in the organization helps to make the communication between the business unit of the organization and the technical unit of the organization. This helps the flow of the communication in the organization a right way. On the other hand , it has been seen that system engineering is not the only thing to manage the development of the project in an organization. Application of the right project management methodology is also important part for the development of the project. There are various project methodologies exists. However, the selection of the project methodology is dependent on the requirements of the projects and the type of the projects. The implementation of the project management methodologies is important as it applies different stages for the development of the project. This helps the projects to deliver the outcome  which meets all the requirements of the projects.
12. Evidence: It has been found out that different projects in the organization have different specifications  and the expected outcomes. The project scopes and the areas are also different for different projects. In this cases the approach for the development of  all the projects will not be the same. Different approaches for the development of the different projects are known as the project management methodologies. The system thinking and the selection of the right project methodologies will help to implement all the necessary factors in the project so that it can able to meet the right outcome. Another importance of the implementation of the project management methodology in the organization  is that the projects can mitigate the scope creep. The scope creep in the project management refers to the change in the requirement at the middle of the project. The scope creep can be happened due to the confusion regarding the requirement gathering. It can be said that the right implementation of the system engineering and the project management methodologies will help to develop the projects in a right way.
13. LO5: Importance of selection of the right project management application in the organization.
14. Summery: In order to develop and deliver a project in a right way, the organization should choose the right project management methodologies. The project management methodologies are defined as the processes in the life cycle of the project management. The approaches of the different projects are different. In this context, the different methodologies are used. The selection of the different methodologies are based on the requirement and the type of the project. However, all the methodologies generally consists of five phases- initialization, planning, execution,  controlling and monitoring and closing of the projects. The initialization is the phase concerned with the requirement gathering of the projects The requirement gathering and the right documentation of the project is important for the mitigation of the scope creep in the project management. The scope creep defines the change in the requirements at the middle of the project. In order to avoid the scope creep the requirements form the clients at the initial stage of the project. The planning stage is concerned about the making the blue print of the execution for the project based on the collected requirements. The execution phase of the project management life cycle denotes the execution of the requirements according to the plan. This step is followed by the monitoring  and the controlling of the project. This step is concerned about the evaluation of the performance of the developed project. In case, if the project is not providing the right outcome, further modification and improvisation is needed. The life cycle of the project management methodology ends with the closing of the project.
15. Evidence: The project management processes and the methodologies are important for the managing of the project. It has been seen that the project needs to go through a certain steps in order to deliver the right outcome. There are different approaches for the different project management methodologies, however, in general there are five steps present in the management methodology. These steps are concerned about the fact, that the project is meeting all the requirements mentioned by the clients and it is going to give the expected outcome. The requirement gathering phase is the most  important part of the project management process. It helps to mitigate the scope creep of the project management phase. It has been seen that the project, with adaptation of no particular management methodology ends up without delivering the right outcome. On the other hand the project that has followed the stages in the adopted management methodology provides the expected outcome along with meeting the all requirements of the clients.
16. LO6: Significance of the project management application system in effective project management knowledge and decision making.
17. Summery: The project management knowledge and the decision making is the important part in the project management process. The project management knowledge refers to the management of the different aspects of the project. Some of the project management knowledge includes project scope management, project time management, project quality management, project risk management and the project communication management. The project risk management is concerned with the risks those are involved with the projects. Some of those risks are the scope creep of the project, time constraint and the budget constraint of the project. As discussed previously, the project scope creep is the change in the requirements of the projects. The time constraint refers to the finishing of the project in time and within the allocated budget. These risks are managed by the proper use of project management. The management of the communication concerns with the flow of  communication in the system and the proper sharing of the knowledge. These knowledge management helps in the decision making process for the organization in order to develop the project in a right way. The identification of the certain risks which are associated with the project will help the managers to mitigate then risks. The mitigation of the risks will help to develop the project in accurate way in a cost effective way. The flow of the communication helps in the knowledge sharing. The knowledge sharing helps in the development of the system engineering and system thinking. The decision making process is involved in the system thinking. Sharing of the knowledge will help the team members in the project development process to share the ideas about the project. This will help the team members to come up with the best decision for the project.
18. Evidence: The management of the project knowledge includes the management of the project communication, management of the knowledge regarding the risks associated with the project and the management of the quality of the project. All these factors are important for the development and the improvisation of the project. The management of the quality ensures that the quality of the product is meeting all the standards. On the other hand the flow of communication in the management process helps the communication between the different modules of the project management process. It has been seen that the proper communication between the different modules of the project helps to develop the project in a right way. This flow of knowledge is managed by the system thinking and the system engineering. The system engineering is concerned with the maintenance of the sharing of the information between the business unit and  the technical unit of the organization. On the other ah d the system thinking is concerned with the  gathering and the analysis of the information regarding processes of the projects. There are various tools for the analysis of the information in system thinking process. Some of these tools are known brain storming, structure analysis. . The system thinking helps in the decision making process for the organization as well as the development of the  project. The proper implementation project methodologies along with implementation of the project knowledge and the system thinking tools will help the project mangers to take the right decision  for the development of the project.
19. LO7: the advantages and the disadvantages of the manual and electronic project management application system.
20. Summery: The management of the different phases of the project life cycle can be managed by the both manual and the electronic process. The project and the portfolio management deals with the managing of these processes. Both project and the portfolio management are related o the project management definition scope- there are slight difference between the project and the portfolio management. The project management is concerned with the management of the processes in the project, while the portfolio management is concerned about the managing of the different projects with diverse background. The managing the different steps in the project and the portfolio management can be done in both manual and electronic way. The manual process is concerned with the keeping of the tracks of the progress of the projects in a journal or maintaining the sticky notes. On the other hand the electronic way of managing the project managements is done through the specific application software provided by the software companies like IBM,SAP and Microsoft. The similarity between these two processes is that in both cases the main objective is to maintain the methodologies and track the progress of the project in  a right way. However, there are any differences between these two methods. The electronic way of keeping the track of the project management is better than the manual process. There is a chance of human error in the manual process however, managing through electronic way will help to reduce the chances of error and the calculation and the analysis of the data can be done properly. However, sometime the manual way of keeping the track sometimes become helpful. So, in this case it is recommended that the keeping track of the record can be done through the merging of the electronic record and manual way of  keeping the records.
21. Evidence: Previously, the managing of the project is done by the manual way of keeping the records. Recently, with the development of the technology the record keeping is done through the project management software which are provided by the leading software companies. The tracking of the progress of the project can be done through the use of both the electronic way of maintaining the  progress of the project along with the manual way of managing the projects.
22. LO8: Significance of the project and the portfolio management for the project managers to monitor the performance and manages the changes in the project.
23. Summery: The project and the portfolio management is the important thing for the project managers to manage the development of the projects. There is a difference between the project and the portfolio management. However, both the project and the portfolio management defines certain life cycles for the development of the projects and the portfolios. These well defined stages helps the projects and the portfolios to deliver the right outcome and provides the services meeting all the requirements of the projects. One of the important stage in the project management life cycle is requirement specification. The clarity in the requirement specification helps to mitigate the scope creep in the project.
24. Evidence: The scope creep can be eliminated by the application of the project management methodologies. The project management helps to provide the project managers with well defines project life cycle. The project life cycle has the requirement specification phase, where the documentation of the requirement is done. This documentation phase helps to bring the clarity in the requirement which eventually eliminates the scope creep in the project. The life cycle of the project management phase also contains the monitoring of the performance of the project.
25. LO9: Project , program and portfolio application for the successful execution of the project.
26. Summery: In order to develop and deliver a project in a right way, the organization should choose the right project management methodologies. The project management methodologies are defined as the processes in the life cycle of the project management. The approaches of the different projects are different. In this context, the different methodologies are used. The selection of the different methodologies are based on the requirement and the type of the project. However, all the methodologies generally consists of five phases- initialization, planning, execution,  controlling and monitoring and closing of the projects. The initialization is the phase concerned with the requirement gathering of the projects The requirement gathering and the right documentation of the project is important for the mitigation of the scope creep in the project management.
27. Evidence: The project management processes and the methodologies are important for the managing of the project. It has been seen that the project needs to go through a certain steps in order to deliver the right outcome. There are different approaches for the different project management methodologies, however, in general there are five steps present in the management methodology. These steps are concerned about the fact, that the project is meeting all the requirements mentioned by the clients and it is going to give the expected outcome. The requirement gathering phase is the most  important part of the project management process. It helps to mitigate the scope creep of the project management phase. It has been seen that the project, with adaptation of no particular management methodology ends up without delivering the right outcome. On the other hand the project that has followed the stages in the adopted management methodology provides the expected outcome along with meeting the all requirements of the clients.
28. LO10: Development regarding the project and the portfolio management system.
29. Summery: The project and the portfolio management helps in the progress of the business . Earlier the management of the project management was managed by the manual processing system, however with the advancement of the technology the project management process is managed by the application software provided by the software vendors.
30. Evidence: The most of the companies and the organizations use the electronic way of maintaining the progress of the projects. These application software for managing the project are provided by the software vendors.

In order to develop and deliver a project in a right way, the organization should choose the right project management methodologies. The project management methodologies are defined  as the processes in the life cycle of the project management. The approaches of the different projects are different. In this context, the different methodologies are used. The selection of the different methodologies are based on the requirement and the type of the project.

References

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