Project Planning, Monitoring And Control: Techniques And Importance

Project Management

Introduction

Every organization face different issues such as what products/systems must be developed by the organization, expansion of capacity, etc. These problems are resolved by adopting some degree of change in the organization, and for adopting these changes organizations introduced different projects. For the purpose of ensuring successful execution of the project it is necessary that organization impose responsibility of project on particular individual. It must be noted that every project has different and unique problems and in different manner resources are assigned to the project. Every project operates in different environment and also it requires different attitude and style of the project manager to conduct the activities of the organization. Therefore, it is necessary that structure of the organization for the project must be designed in such manner as it fits within the project’s operating constraints. However, it is possible that organizational structure which is implemented in the project may not be the same structure which is used in the complete life cycle of the project because of the changes occurred in priorities, available resources, project personnel, laws, etc. (PMI, n.d.).

This report mainly defines the techniques related to the project planning, monitoring and control, and also the importance of these techniques in bringing the project to the success completion. Lastly paper is concluded with brief conclusion. 

Before stating the techniques used to plan and control the project, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the project. Generally, every activity in the organization is considered as project which possesses unique characteristics. In other words, project is considered as a strategic responsibility of events which are related to that responsibility for the purpose of reaching an objective (Jeffrey, Joey & Joseph, 2002; project insight, n.d.).

For the purpose of this report, project of the company involves introduction of new machinery which help the organization in recycling their organic waste and use it in the organic farming. For this purpose report states required techniques and tools related to planning and controlling.

Traditionally, company decide to undertake the efforts of the project and in this company decide to provide the project and for completing the project necessary resources related to the project to some responsible individual by assuming that such individual use some form of project management. In this implication made by organization are less important, and the basic concepts related to project management are simple in nature (Lee, 2017).

Project Planning and Controlling

In other words, management of any project is considered as the submission of collected gears and techniques for the purpose of directing the use of different resources towards the achievement of objective. Each and every task requires the mix of these tools and techniques for conducting effective life cycle of the project. By implementing the technology related to the project management, organization try to minimize the disruption of regular activities of the business, and for this purpose in number of cases organization put all the skills, technologies, resources related to the project under single command.

Skills related to the project clearly depend on the aspects of the project and resources available for the project at that time. If organization made more adjustments related to any project, the more chances exist of failure of project. It must be noted that, form related to project management is unique, and this form is changed throughout the project. Process of project management mainly includes four phases, and these phases are stated below:

Initiating the Project- techniques related to initiation of the project includes:

• Organization must establish the team for project initiation, and this includes organizing team members for the purpose of assisting in carried out the activities related to project initiation. In this Project manager establish the team which has knowledge related to the organic products and it also include the members who can easily understand the machine work.
• Organization must make efforts to establish strong relationship with the consumer, because it helps the organization in understanding the aspects of consumer which ultimately result in growth. In this, Project manager tries to understand the needs of customers as per their farming method.
• Organization must set plan related to project initiation, and in this leader must define the activities for organizing the team for the purpose of achieving set goals and targets. In this manager define the needs of machinery and various other activities related to product introduction and product marketing.
• Organization must establish the procedure related to the management. In this leader tries to develop team communication and procedures related to reporting. Tries to build communication between the producting, marketing, and servicing team.  
• Organization must establish the project management environment and workbook. In this leader mainly focus on collecting and organizing tools which will custom for handling the project. 

Planning the Project- this section defines the tools and techniques related to machinery which help in developing organic waste, and it includes:

• Describe the scope related to the project, alternatives, and feasibility- it includes the understanding of the content and complexity of the project, and in this management answered some important questions and some of these questions are stated below:
• Problem/opportunity addressed by the relevant project?
• What results are to be achieved by the project?
• Actions required for the project?
• How success of the project is measured?
• How management knows about the end related to the project?
• Division of the project into different tasks- In this complete project is divided into different and small tasks.
• Estimation of resources- in this step management estimates the resources required for completing the project and also create a resource plan which helps in gathering the plan and arranging the resources in the efficient and effective manner.
• Develop the preliminary schedule- organization set particular time period for completing every task in the work breakdown structure. This step helps the organization in completing the set targets on time.
• Develop a plan related to communication- in this step organization develops procedures related to communication between the management, members of the team, and the customer.
• Determine the standard and procedures r elated to the projects- in this organization stated how various products related to the project are produced and tested by the team of the project.
• Identify and assess risk- the main aim in this step is to identify and assess main reasons of risk, and also the issues faced by organization because of those risks.  
• Set preliminary budget- in this organization decides the costs and incomes in context of the project.
• Emerging a report of work- in this paper organization list the work to be approved.
• Plan related to project- it defines the tasks related to projects and requirement of resources (UC Davis, 2013). 

Executing the Project- this section of the project management includes execution of the project in which machinery which develop waste is introduced and after that how this waste is delivered to the consumer:

• First step related to the execution of the project includes working on the base idea of the project plan.
• Next, manager monitor the progress of the project in comparison of baseline project plan, and this can be done by using Gantt and PERT charts. If required manager changes the baseline project plan.
• Manager also maintains the project workbook, and for this manager maintains the complete records related to all the events of the project. The workbook related to the project is considered as primary source of information which helps the manager in producing all the project reports.
• Manager must communicate all the necessary information with the entire team of the project and manger must communicate any revisions related to the project.

Closing down the Project- in this stage of the project, it is necessary to inform the concerned parties related to the completion of the project. All the documents and records related to the project must be finalized for the purpose of final review of the project.

• In this manager must conduct post reviews, and in this manager must determine the strength and weakness of the deliverables of the project.
• Closing the contract of customer and in this manager ensures that all the provisions of the contract of customer have been met (EM-EA, n.d.).

Project management is considered as challenging task which includes various complex responsibilities, and there are number of tools which help the management in completing the tasks and fulfill all the responsibilities. The most important tools are Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) and Gantt Charts and both the tools and both the tools are described below:

This tool is used at the time of planning and controlling stage, which help the management in describing and supervise the tasks which are important for the purpose of completing the project. PERT charts and Critical path method (CPM) charts are generally used as alternative of each other and the only difference between the two is computation of tasks time.

It must be noted that, for the purpose of these tasks representation of graphic nature known as “Project Network” or “CPM Diagram” is used.

Planning of PERT includes following steps (Techtarget, n.d.):

• Management first identifies the specific activities and also the milestones. In this activities are considered as tasks of the project and on other side milestones are considered as events the beginning and the end of one or more activities.
• Next step in this determination of proper sequence of activities, and this step may combine the activity sequence with some of the tasks.
• Third step of the process includes the construction of network diagram. This is done by using the information related to activity sequence (ACORN, n.d.).
• Fourth step includes the estimation of time needed for every activity. Generally, weeks are used as unit of time for completion of activity, but manager can use any other unit of time which is consistent in nature. A distinguish feature of PERT is the ability to deal with the uncertainty in activity completion times. Generally this model states the three type of time estimates for each activity:
• Optimistic time is considered as shortest time in which any activity can be completed.
• Most likely time is the maximum chance related to the completion time.
• Pessimistic time is the longest time that any activity may take.
• Last step of any activity includes the determination of critical path. 

This tool is used to show the datebook time of task assignments in days, weeks or months. This tool mainly used the graphic representations for the purpose of showing the start, elapsed, and completion times of each task within a project. Gantt charts are considered as ideal tool for the progress of tracking. In this, number of days which are needed for completing the task that reach to the milestone can be compared with the intentional or assessed number (Passenhein, 2009).

Conclusion

After considering the above facts it can be said that, while manufacturing products, providing services and achieving results in consistent manner is the actual aim of the management of the organization. It is necessary that project manager must consider all the facts and tools before applying all the techniques related to the project management.

Above stated tools and techniques are effective in nature and provide quality management in the organization. 

References:

Jeffrey A. Joey F. Joseph S. (2002).Modern Systems Analysis & Design. Pearson Education, Inc. Prentice Hall.

PMI. What is Project Management?. Available at: https://www.pmi.org/about/learn-about-pmi/what-is-project-management. Accessed on 26^th December 2017.

Project insight. 5 Basic Phases of Project Management. Available at: https://www.projectinsight.net/project-management-basics/basic-project-management-phases. Accessed on 26^th December 2017.

Lee, C. (2017). Why Project Management is Critical to Your Organization. Available at: https://www.simplilearn.com/why-project-management-is-critical-to-your-organization-article. Accessed on 26^th December 2017.

ACORN. Tools and techniques of Project Management. Available at: https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&edata-src=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi46tXChKfYAhVGo48KHeP2BTcQFggxMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FFaris_Alshubiri%2Fpost%2FWhat_tools_methods_and_techniques_can_be_used_to_control_human_resources_and_that_can_quantify_the_costs_they_generate2%2Fattachment%2F59d6223f79197b807798094d%2FAS%3A300835612446729%401448736207649%2Fdownload%2F10.pdf&usg=AOvVaw30P3QMFvQTKs8DntfsMjKe. Accessed on 26^th December 2017.

Em-EA. Project Management. Available at: https://www.em-ea.org/guide%20books/book-1/1.7%20project%20management.pdf. Accessed on 26^th December 2017.

UCdavis, (2013). Introduction to Project Management: Principles, Techniques and Tools. Available at: https://oe.ucdavis.edu/local_resources/docs/projectmanagementtraining.pdf. Accessed on 26^th December 2017.

Passenheim, O. (2009). Project Management. Available at: https://home.hit.no/~hansha/documents/theses/projectmanagement.pdf. Accessed on 26^th December 2017.

Techtarget. PERT chart (Program Evaluation Review Technique). Available at: https://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/PERT-chart. Accessed on 26^th December 2017.