Project management is application of tools, techniques, skills, and knowledge of the project activities that are being carried out to meet the requirement of the project (Kerzner 2013). In this report, a detailed study is present about project management, how the processes are being handled by involving project management in a project. All the processes that can be involved in The City of Cardiff Council are all illustrated in this article. The tool and techniques of project management are also described in detailed that can be used by The City of Cardiff Council to handle their project to deliver a successful project to their customers. There are some methodologies highlighted in this article to carry out project management successfully.
Project Management is considered as one of the most critical processes in a project. Project Management is considered as the core process of all the projects that connects all the project activities and the processes involved in the project together (Burke 2013). The processes of project management are described as follows:
2.1 Project Initiation- The City of Cardiff Council may initiate its project by the project initiation process. Project initiation is the starting point of the project. All activities that are related to win a project mainly take place in project initiation. Pre-sale is considered as the main activity of the initiation phase. If the City of Cardiff Council uses this practice, then provider of service can prove the ability and the eligibility for completing all the processes of the client’s project (Larson and Gray 2013). The initiation helps to win the business. All the phases of the project are initialized in the initiation phase. During the phase of gathering, all the requirements of the clients are analyzed and gathered for the implementation. Negotiations can also takes place so that they can change particular requirements or can also remove particular requirements. The initiation of processes mainly ends with sign-off or requirements.
2.2 Project Planning- Next comes the project Planning. This phase of Project management process should be used by City of Cardiff Council under any situation. The main processes of project management is the project planning. If the project planning is done wrong, there will be negative consequences in the coming phases of the project (Schwalbe 2015). A detailed attention has to be paid in the process of project planning in a project. The plan of the project is derived so that the address of the project requirement which includes budget, scope, and timeline of the project can be derived. The City of Cardiff Council can schedule of the project is developed in this phase. The resources that are needed in the project are allocated only after the schedule and the budget is done (Fleming and Koppelman 2016). Delivery schedule and resource allocation are the main components that are involved in the project plan. These two components give the detail of all the activities that are involved in project. The project plan also gives the detail about who is executing the project and how much time will be taken to execute them. The project plan is an important information to the project manager and to all the stakeholders who are involved in the project. The project planning can be done by the project manager involved in City of Cardiff Council.
2.3 Project Execution- After the paperwork, there is a phase called execution. The City of Cardiff Council needs to execute the project that is planned. Mainly the team under the project manager executes the planning that is done by the manager. In City of Cardiff Council the team who works for a particular project manager can deal with the execution of the project. The project is executed by project management so that the objectives of project are achieved. All the members of the project team carry out their own tasks in the execution process (Walker 2015). The team members are given a particular deadline for all the activities they perform. The project progresses are tracked by the project schedule. At the time of project execution, many reporting activities are to be done. Senior management of any company requires to have a daily status and the weekly status also updates the project progress. The progress of the project can also be tracked by the process of project management. The client can sometimes want to know about the work that is in progress. Cost and efforts are tracked during the progress of project (Leach 2014). In the phase of project execution, it is seen that if the project is progressing in right direction or in the wrong direction. Along with the reporting, in City of Cardiff Council there can exists several number of deliveries which are to be completed in the phase of execution. Project deliveries are not considered as a one time delivery that is usually made at end of project. The deliveries that are done during the project are scattered in the period of project execution and also delivery is done upon the timelines that are agreed.
2.4 Validation and Control- In the life cycle of the project of the City of Cardiff Council, the activities of the project is thoroughly validated and controlled. The controlling o the processes are done by adhering the started protocols that includes quality assurance, test plan, communication plan, and also project plan of the project (Boud, Cohen and Sampson 2014). Some of the instances are not covered by the protocols. In such situation, the manager who is handling the project should use the necessary and the adequate measurements so that those situations can be controlled. In City of Cardiff Council, validation means supporting all the activities that keeps on running from the starting day to the end of project. There is a particular validation criteria for all the activities and the deliveries that are done (Verzuh 2015). A team known as “quality assurance team” is employed to assist the team with verification and validation functions.
2.5 Evaluation and Closeout- After all the requirements of the projects are done, the implemented project can be handed over to the client and also close the project in City of Cardiff Council. If the deliveries of the project are done properly according to the requirements, the project is accepted by the customer and full payment is done for the project (Mir and Pinnington 2014). If the project is to be closed, then the full project will be evaluated. All the mistakes that are done by the team members will be identified and necessary steps are taken to mitigate those steps in further projects. If the project manager comes to see that there is no gain which was expected, the project timelines may have been exceeded (Lock 2014). Such project is not considered as a successful project to service provider. The manager of City of Cardiff Council takes necessary actions are to be taken and are to be handled carefully so that such problems do not rise in future process.
To execute successful projects of the City of Cardiff Council, the manager of the project or the team of project management is to follow particular set of tools (Zhao 2015). The tools that are designed are particularly designed on regular productivity tools that are mainly adopted for work of project management. Using these tools helps the project manager to work easily and also standardize the work. The project management tools and techniques helps the project manager to routine their jobs (Burns 2016). The tools and techniques that are involved in project management are described as follows:
3.1 Project Plan- The projects are to be managed by the project manager and the project managers should have project plans ready with them. The details of a project plan show all the processes of execution that are to be carried out in the project (Song et al. 2015). The project plans the details of the scope of the project. The strategies or the approaches that are to be addressed in the scope of the project and the objectives of the project are described in the project plan. The core of project plan is the strategies that are carried out through the execution of the project (Matthews and McLees 2015). The strategies mostly depend on the purpose of the project and may vary due to specific requirements of the project. The
3.2 Milestone Checklist- The second tool and technique that is involved in project management is milestone checklist. This is considered as one of the best tool that is used by project manager to determine the progress of the project is on track or not (Maylor and Turner 2016). There is no such software available to track the progress of the project. The only way to track the progress is that to use Excel template. The project manager may use excel template to track the progress of the project. Milestone checklist is considered as live document that are updated by the project manager twice in a week.
3.3 Gantt Chart- The project schedule is mainly illustrated. The Gantt chart also shows the interdependencies among the activities in the project with the project manager. Any type of project can be described with the help of Gantt chart (Pournader, Tabassi and Baloh 2015). From the way of construction to the end of software development, all the processes are illustrated in Gantt chart. Gantt chart seems to be quite easy, but is a complex task especially in projects which have many activities. Making a Gantt chart can be done in many different ways. For small projects the Gantt charts can be done in Excel itself and then can be downloaded as a template of excel (Owen 2015). But if the project is big and has high financial values, then a software tool is used to make the Gantt chart. The software is known as MS Project.
3.4 Software of project management- With enhancement in computer technology, there has evolved many software tools that are used for developing project management. One of the project management tool is MS Project. The MS Project is used by all the project managers globally. MS Project is the only one software of project management that which helps to track the progress of the project and also can track most complex projects that are distributed in different geographical areas. The MS Project is generally managed by many project managers (Marle and Vidal 2016). There are also a number of packages that calculates project management, but all the packages are new online portals. The online portals helps the project managers to access the activities from anywhere and can also track the progress of the project.
3.5 Project reviews- The mechanism of project review is considered as one of the greatest tool that is used in project management. There are much strict project reviews for bigger companies and the project reviews are very comprehensive (Desmond 2014). Smaller organizations or companies do not have such strict rules about project reviews. The adherence of the project process standards and the progress of the project are mainly considered in a project review. The project reviews are usually done by a third party as a project audit that are held internally or may be externally in the project completion. The action items and the non-compliance items are also tracked in project review so that they can be completed in time.
3.6 Delivery reviews- The delivery review of a project management gives the surety that the project is completed on time by the team members of the project with all the requirements that are needed by the customer and also adhere the guidelines the quality of the project. The supervisors or the third party who comes for inspection of the project internally conducts review of the delivery. There are also stakeholders who participate in reviewing the project (Martinelli and Milosevic 2016). The review of the stakeholders is considered as one of the most important review of the project. Review of the project is considered very crucial as negative review may even lead to rejection of the project which has not satisfied the project standards and the non-compliances.
3.7 Score cards- The performance of the team is mainly tracked by the score cards that are used by the project teams. The score card is even accessible to the project manager to access the performance of his team members and also reports the score card to the higher level of management or the HR (Snyder 2014). The information on the score card is then evaluated for promotion of the team and can also be used for the assessment performance of the team member. The team member can get promotion from the evaluation of the score card itself.
The project management team adopts certain methodologies that are used in progressing the work of the team (Lin et al. 2014). There are certain different project management methodologies that are used by the team undertaking a project. The methodologies are defined as follows:
Adaptive Project Framework- The methodology of Adaptive Project Framework considers the scope of the project as a variable (Al-Amoudi et al. 2013). City of Cardiff Council can use the adaptive project framework to reduce the cost of the project and time of the project. The cost and time is considered as constant for the project. During the execution of project, the scope of the project is adjusted accordingly so that the maximum value is achieved from the business from project.
Agile Software Development- The best methodology that City of Cardiff Council can implement is the Agile Software Development. The methodology of Agile Software Development is adopted for projects which needs maximum agility in its requirement. The main features of this method is that it delivers the project in a short time with all the requirements of the project fulfilled, have culture of dynamic team, and also has less restrictive control on project (Chadli et al. 2016). The agile method of software development mainly emphasize on communication that is real time. This methodology can prove very fruitful to the City of Cardiff Council.
Crystal methods- This is a method in which the processes of the project are given very low priority. This methodology mostly focuses on the communication of the team, skills of the members in the team, interaction and also concentrates on people. This method can be categorized under the agile method of software development.
DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Model) – The DSDM methodology can be considered as a subset of the agile methodology. This is the successor of RAD (Rapid Application Development) methodology (Reiss 2013). This methodology mainly boots the training of the team involved in the project, and also supports the documents that the project has. Emphasis is mostly given to the user involvement who is active in the life cycle of the project.
XP (Extreme Programming) – The main aim of XP (Extreme Programming) is to low the cost of the changes that are required in the project. Feedbacks mostly of fine scale are emphasized in Extreme Programming with continuous process and shared understanding. XP also emphasize programmer welfare. The documents of XP do not has detailed specification of all the requirements or the building of software architect.
FDD (Feature Driven Development) – Mainly well-defined processes and simple processes are focused by FDD methodology. This methodology enhances delivery cycles that are feature driven and mostly short iterative. The projects which are under Feature Driven Development are feature based and all planning and all the execution are also based on feature.
ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) – All the best practices that are used in the methodologies of project management are collected in his methodology. Much broader aspect of project management is mostly covered in ITIL that mainly starts in level of organizational management.
JAD (Joint Application Development) – This methodology mainly emphasize in involving clients from first stage of the project process. This is done by Joint Application Sessions. The team members of the project and the client of the project hold JAD sessions so that they can get contribution from the side of the client (Mishra and Mishra 2013). The sessions can be held any time when both of them likes to in the entire life cycle of the project.
Lean Development (LD) – The change tolerance software is mainly involved in the methodology of lean development. This methodology gives priority mostly to satisfy the customers. The team gets motivated by providing highest value to the money that is paid by their customers. All other aspects come after satisfying the customers.
Prince2 – This methodology is mainly an approach to process based in project management. Prince2 methods consist of eight processes that are of high level.
RAD (Rapid Application Development) – RAD methodology of project management emphasize to develop the products faster along with high quality. The RAD methodology uses workshop method to gather all the requirements that are needed in the project. Clear requirements are achieved by using prototyping and then reuse the components of the software so that the timelines of the development are accelerated (Fowler, Lindahl and Sköld 2015). All internal communications that are involved RAD are considered as informal.
RUP (Rational Unified Process) – All positive aspects that are involved in the methodologies of modern development are captured by Rational Unified Process. The RUP method offers their client one package of methodologies. The RUP methodology is considered as an iterative approach and is considered as first methodology of project management to develop a software.
Scrum- Scrum is a part of agile methodology. The main aim of scrum methodology is to make improvement in the productivity of the team. This can be made possible by removing all the burden that is possible in the project. The project which uses the scrum methodology employs scrum master so that they can manage their projects.
Waterfall – The waterfall methodology of project management is considered as the traditional method of managing projects. This is also known as legacy model for developing the projects. The method of waterfall is the oldest method of all and had been practiced from decades before the development of all the methodologies (Heldman 2015). There are fixed phases of the lifecycle of development in waterfall model. This model also has linear timelines. This model cannot address the challenges that are involved in developing a software in modern world.
Spiral – The spiral method is an extended form of waterfall model with an additional feature of prototyping. The spiral method is used especially in projects that are large and waterfall model is not capable to access all the processes involved in projects.
SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) – The SDLC method is considered as a conceptual model of developing the software. This method involves in combining more than one methodologies so that it can give the best ever output (Crawford 2014). The method of System Development Life Cycle highlights the use of documentation and puts strict guidelines on the documentation developed. The processes that are made by combining one or more methods are to be strictly followed by this methodology. All the team members are to follow the guidelines that are involved in the process.
The City of Cardiff Council wants to achieve success in project with flawless delivery of project with effective and advanced tools of project management and techniques in structured approach. The City of Cardiff Council has many projects and new programs. The company wants to carry all the innovative processes and methodologies that can be involved in project management. The company mainly wants to cut the cost of all the processes that are to be carried out for their business with quality delivery of projects. The company wants to make the service of the customer and delivery very efficient and also enhance the customer handling complaints and the recovery methods that are used in project management.
As a SMG (Senior Management Group) of the council, the management capability of the company is to be enhanced. Project Management uses many techniques and tools, structured processes to enhance the capability in different areas. The City of Cardiff Council wants to improve all their projects in by the capability of project management.
By using tools and techniques in The City of Cardiff Council, the manager who handles a particular project can handle the project more easily. The productivity of the Council can be enhanced by using the project management tools and techniques. There are several project management tools and techniques. The first project management tool that can be used in The City of Cardiff Council is project planning. By planning the project, the manager of the Council can details the plan of the project for execution of all the processes successfully. Planning the project gives the scope of the project (Maylor and Turner 2016). The strategies are carried out by executing the project plan in delivering a successful project to the client efficiently. There should also be milestone checklist in the Council so that the manager gets to know the progress of the project and track if the project is on time or not. The milestone checklist is one of the most important tools available in project management. There is no other software which can check the progress of the project that is handled by The City of Cardiff Council.
The third tool that is used in project management is making of Gantt chart. These charts are constructed mainly on Excel sheet or a project management tool known as MS Project. The Gantt chart shows interdependencies between project manager and the activities of the project that are being carried out. There are also a number of project management online tools to execute the plans for carrying out the project, but MS Project is the most efficient software tool that the Council can use for managing their projects (Lock 2014). The Council can also apply techniques such as project reviews or delivery reviews to carry out their work more efficiently. The project review is mainly done by third party inside the company itself and the review is noted for further improvement. The delivery review is most important techniques that the Council needs to apply so that they can get the review from their customers who will actually handle the projects. The delivery reviews are generally taken after the software or the project is delivered to the client. The last tool is the score cared. Tis card shows all the progress that are being tracked during the life cycle of project. By evaluating the scorecard, the team members can get a promotion accordingly they have performed in handling the project.
Conclusions
To make a business initiate successfully, develop the business and to complete all the projects that the business handles, the management of the company is to employee professionals, expert in skills of project management. The world of business is speeding up to a great extent and to cope up with the speeding technology, all businesses have to implement the methodologies of project management to handle their projects successfully. All companies should have a clear goal to deliver a project before starting the project itself. Project management helps to clear the goal of the project in the planning itself. The budget of the project is also project is also described in the methods of project management. An approximate time can be estimated by implementing project management in a project.
It is recommended for The City of Cardiff Council to uses the methodologies that follow a combined method of project management. There are many methodologies illustrated in this paper which uses combined methodologies in their processes. The council is recommended to use one of those methodologies.
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