One of the most important tasks in the life cycle of a project is its management. There are different roles and responsibilities that a project manager should undertake in order to ensure that the project is completed successfully by ensuring job satisfaction of the teammates as well as client/customer satisfaction at the same time.
This reflective report will focus on my reflection on the roles and responsibilities of project managers in the lifecycle of any project such as decision making processes, budget calculation, meeting deadlines, getting approvals and other important tasks (Niazi et al., 2016). By the end of this report, the reader will have a clear understanding of the learning outcomes of the project manager after the successful completion of the database development project of a leading bank of the Middle East, The First national bank.
The first task of the project manager was to get the proposal approved which had the detailed plan for the betterment of FNB working operations to improve the existing environment of the bank. Through this I had leant to prioritize the activities that are part of a project lifecycle, I also developed a sense of responsibility. I understood the importance of meeting deadlines in project management (Larson et al., 2014). This was the very first step towards the deployment of the project.
The next phase that the project manager managed was the planning phase that was essential for delivering the finally about to deliver the activity of today. The corporate database for the bank had to be carefully designed for which he had to assign specific tasks to the team members based on their expertise and filed of knowledge, such as gathering as well as processing data from the different departments within the bank (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). Accordingly, he had to carefully analyze the associated operational activities related to the activities.
Among other important learning outcomes that I had derived and learnt from this particular project were the importance of approvals in order to ensure that the stakeholders get their necessary authority for proceeding further in the project. This ensures that the project heads act responsibly at their end in taking any business decisions while delivering the project for First national bank (Leach, 2014). The project manager had ensured that the updates were properly communicated to the business heads as well as the stakeholders and the other bank staff to ensure that the project initiation was done successfully and everyone was well aware about it (Burke, 2013). He had also framed the detailed plan of delivering the project and associated deadlines of each tasks considering the timelines and the order of the activities that had to be delivered by the team members. In addition, he had to conduct group meeting with the team of risk experts in order to come up with proper risk assessment plan, which not only helped him to frame the proper risk management plan for the project of the First National Bank, but also helped me gain valuable knowledge about project risk management. I gained in depth knowledge about the different risk management tools the Delphi technique, decision tree method and other models. Through this, I could understand the importance of such tools in my own professional career and how important these aspects are for a project manager (Mir & Pinnington, 2014). It helped me develop an understanding of the leadership skills expected in a project manager.
The next set of activities such as planning scheduling as well as budgeting were done by extensive research and use of advanced tools and expert opinions which further strengthened my knowledge about effective project management. The project manager had consulted with the officials of the First national bank and also led the change management team and provided guidelines for the effective communication of the new changes within the organization (Creasy & Anantatmula, 2013). I have developed a clear understanding that no matter how much well prepared a project may be, it can never be a success if it lacks a proper implementation as well as communication plan for the employees as well as the other stake holders associated to the project.
The final data of completion of the project that was communicated to the project manager to be 12th December, 2018. He had to ensure that all the tasks were in place and the final project was delivered on time and accordingly, the deadlines of the specific tasks were communicated to the different team members. The project manager had to ensure that the database was selected in such a way that it could fit in all the corporate information which also had to be encrypted in order to ensure data security as well. The database had to be designed in such a way so that the services of First National bank could be improved further and all the employees would be able to access the data in a common platform. Therefore, it was his responsibility to ensure that the project was just not delivered on time but it was also tested and delivered before its final integration in the bank work operations (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016). The database of corporate style has been selected for the listing of the information and forming the improved services for the First National Bank. His primary responsibility in the course of the entire project lifecycle was to keep a track on the database designing as well as to make sure that it was being done in accordance with the specific needs of the First national Bank.
The project manager had theoretical concepts of project management but through this project based on database of the First National bank, he had gained an in depth knowledge of the practical applications of the project management tools in the real time scenario (Turner, 2014). I had been exploring the different tools and techniques of project management in the development of the desired database for the First National bank. The project manager had worked in collaboration with the team of experts as well as strategic project management tools in order to select the appropriate corporate database for the First National Bank (Stulz, 2015). The learning outcome that I have derived is the importance of coordinating with multiple team when it comes to decision making in such complex project management lifecycles (Ahern, Leavy, & Byrne, 2014). The project manager had to ensure that the final product was delivered on time and at the same time, the quality of the output was also up to the mark to ensure optimum client satisfaction. He had conducted regular meeting with the team of security experts in order to ensure that the database that was created also had improved security features to keep the Bank important data protected. I understood how important it is to design the database as per the needs of specific industries since banking financial and other data are extremely sensitive and confidential therefore should have maximum possible security. He had undertaken the tasks accordingly to make sure data security was one of the most important objective of the project (Larson & Gray, 2015). I understood the process of documentation in order to understand how the implication works for different kinds of business decision making. That will help me in my own professional career in the future. He was informed that he was responsible not just for delivering the project outcome on time but to ensure that the post project implementation analysis was carried out successfully and facilities for work operations development were also incorporated (Harrison & Lock, 2017). I had learnt how to take on extra responsibilities that are directly not part of the project and ensuring cohesiveness in the work culture among the team members.
The project manager for the First National bank database development project had to examine if the tasks there were decided were all appropriate and if they applied to the project. Accordingly, he had insert or delete additional tasks and time (in hours) required to complete each tasks and sub phases had to be determined (Serra & Kunc, 2015). He was responsible in forming a quality review board that would consist two to eight professional quality assurance personnel and had to ensure that it was approved by the project sponsor and the systems and programming general manager. I understood the importance of getting approvals before making any business decisions in the project lifecycle and how important it was to get the approvals on time (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). The general manager had set up a meeting between the project sponsor and the project manager so that they could jointly study and analyze the project plans and its main objectives so that we could come up with a well-defined and structured project budget. This required him to develop his critical thinking as well as analytical skills in decision-making since much of the budget was decided on the activities and phases he decided to add or eliminate form the project plans (Špundak, 2014). It also helped me develop my own thinking skills. He also had to ensure that the users were issues design freezes during the design of the database. He had to select the right analysts from the existing system in First National bank to ensure that the right people were selected for the right job.
Some of the important requirements that were jointly decided by the project manager as well as the project sponsor prior to coming up on a decision on the budget were:
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded from the above reflective summary that, it is extremely important for the project managers to take the right decisions at the right times. This will ensure there is no miscommunication of information among the teammates as well as the information is transparently communicated across the different departments as well as for the top management. Different aspects such as budget change management, risk analysis, employee job satisfaction as well as proper and successful implementiaotn of the final deliverables of the project at the client end has to be ensured by the project manager to ensure its successful completion.
References:
Ahern, T., Leavy, B., & Byrne, P. J. (2014). Complex project management as complex problem solving: A distributed knowledge management perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), 1371-1381.
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Creasy, T., & Anantatmula, V. S. (2013). From Every Direction–-How Personality Traits and Dimensions of Project Managers Can Conceptually Affect Project Success. Project Management Journal, 44(6), 36-51.
Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2016, December). Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2015). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute.
Larson, E. W., Gray, C. F., Danlin, U., Honig, B., & Bacarini, D. (2014). Project management: The managerial process (Vol. 6). Grandview Heights, OH: Education.
Leach, L. P. (2014). Critical chain project management. Artech House.
Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), 202-217.
Niazi, M., Mahmood, S., Alshayeb, M., Riaz, M. R., Faisal, K., Cerpa, N., … & Richardson, I. (2016). Challenges of project management in global software development: A client-vendor analysis. Information and Software Technology, 80, 1-19.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and technology.
Serra, C. E. M., & Kunc, M. (2015). Benefits realization management and its influence on project success and on the execution of business strategies. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 53-66.
Špundak, M. (2014). Mixed agile/traditional project management methodology–reality or illusion?. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, 939-948.
Stulz, R. M. (2015). Risk?taking and risk management by banks. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 27(1), 8-18.
Turner, J. R. (2014). Handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). New York, NY.
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