Discuss about the Risk Management for Concepts and Guidance.
The report covers lecture presented by a guest speaker. It introduces to various project management concepts, tools, principles, and techniques employed in running of project activities. During the lecture the presentation covered items represented in a project management plan. The contents included; project scope statement, project deliverables, project costs, quality management, time management, communication management, project management risks and issues (Burke, 2013). The coverage of the lecture was an important exposure to project management best practices. In any profession it is important to have a guest speaker who can represent what the industry may need. The speaker will also become a professional mentor that others may wish to follow. It further defines who a project manager, and what is its role. The report is written in order to understand the background of project management, and link knowledge gained with that of an expert. It further provides an opportunity to discuss professionally on a written forum.
The knowledgeable guest speaker was Mr. Harpreet Singh a well-known project manager from one of the company in town. The guest speaker boosts more than 15 years in the area of project management. The speaker has participated in many projects has leading consultant. The speaker holds a master’s degree in project management currently pursuing a doctorate degree in project policy planning, design and implementation. Having accepted to provide talk on project management the speaker is a leading role model having mentored several persons and interns. It was a privilege to host an eloquent, knowledgeable guest speaker as Mr. Harpreet Singh.
The introduction of the lecture was important in providing background of project. The speaker was able to clearly define reasons why any person may wish to become a project manager. Some of the reasons given included; one becomes a project manager in order to fix problems, lead and manage a number of criteria’s like quality and performance, it helps one to be exposed to project environment to allow several interactions. A study of project can expose individual to new ideas and concepts that can be useful in management of different projects. A project will not deem to be successful when it lacks a goal to achieve.
The discussion from the speaker provides some of the characteristics of a project that makes it unique from other disciplines. From the guest speaker notes discussions of the characteristics of a project manager was provided. Some of the characteristics mentioned included: it is social oriented, it is not boring, it creates growth, and brings control of various activities. The speaker was able to provide in addition means in which persons wishing to be project managers can do. Some of the ways included; planning one’s career, identification of project management mentors, changing attitude and accepting joining the profession, and lastly one need to carry out research to establish importance of project management. In addition individuals should be able to understand the types of projects that are available to be managed.
The speaker was able to explain techniques, tools, methods and issues related to project management practice and career. The speaker explained the opportunity in which individuals can choose project management profession. The lecture covered time period in which a project manager is expected to work, project durations, qualifications to obtain a project management job, criteria for successful projects, and lastly the speaker was able to explain different types of careers that one can land too.
According to the speaker the project is any activity that entails the five functions of management (planning, organizing, directing, staffing, controlling). The five functions represent the main activities of a project within the project life cycle. The project must pass through the activities to be implemented. In addition the speaker was able to explain what a project management plan entails by mentioning parts of it this included: project scope, plans for quality, communication, human resources, risks, leadership, and budgets.
The first part of a project plan is the project scope. It is a composition of items that clearly defines project boundaries of things to achieve and not achieve (Stark, 2015). It defines what need to be planned by project managers. The project scope if documented well provides a project charter that can act as a communication tool to various users. Other parts of the project scope according to the speaker included: project goal, objectives, project case, deliverables, list of requirements, and milestones to achieve project activities. Any project manager need to start by writing a project scope that will be beneficial in jump starting any project. Other benefits of project scope include; it defines what need to be achieved, help in measuring success, and help manage the triple three constraints of time, quality and costs.
A key component that the speaker mentioned found in project scope is the project deliverables. It clearly explains the tangible and intangible activities expected of a project to be accomplished. It is a useful component in a project in setting out what is to be achieved. According to the speaker the project deliverable is important because; employees can understand what they are working on, helps in assigning and allocation of duties, help in coming up with communication plans, and it can help in budget formulation.
The speaker was able to discuss how management of costs and budget creation in projects (Hwang & Ng, 2013). Project costs revolve on a number of aspects form paying professional compensations, land acquisitions, equipment’s purchases, and other running expenses. A good project manager will need to have a list of estimates of costs in budget form to be able to meet the needs of the project. A budget will be created from various guidelines and information’s. It is notable that budgets need to pay what is supposed to pay, determine what need to be achieved, should be specific to project deliverables and scope, should be participative in nature, and need to get stakeholders approvals before it used. The budget is useful in allocation of resources, defining project boundaries, a monitoring and control tool (Mir & Pinnington, 2014). Project managers should be flexible enough to ensure that budget is utilized and changes to it are factored where possible.
One of the triple three constraints in a project is regarding project quality (Hillier & Hillier, 2013). Quality is everyone’s work in a project and every one should work to ensure that it is achieved. The speaker clearly was able to discuss issues that were related to quality. During the presentation, quality was defined as the criteria in which activities, materials and functions are measured upon (Taylan, Bafail, Abdulaal & Kabli, 2014). The output to quality is excellence. Any project managers need to achieve three components when planning for quality (Snyder, 2014). They need to do quality planning by ensuring correct project specifications are followed for materials and processes. In addition they need to assure that quality has been achieved, and is being maintained. Lastly, they need to do quality control by ensuring there are proper mechanisms and procedures in which quality can be measured, and corrective measures taken. Quality in projects is important in ensuring satisfaction of customers and success of a project is being achieved.
Project management teams need to consider time as a useful resource (Heldman, 2015). They need to take proper consideration and initiatives when planning for it. During the presentation the speaker defined time as durations required to accomplish a specified task/subtask or project phase. It is important that a project manager clearly defines the starting and end times of a project. In a project they need to define proper timelines for various activities shown in the work breakdown structure. The allocation of time will enable tracking of events and allocation of resources (Pemsel, & Wiewiora, 2013). In project management there are several time scheduling techniques that a project manager can chose upon. They can decide to choose optimistic, pessimistic, or most likely time depending on the suitability of each project. Time management is important in projects because it enables to have a clear balance of project costs, quality and achievements in projects.
To ensure effective stakeholder participation takes place communication should be a basic component (Verzuh, 2015). According to the guest speaker communication can be defines as a systematic process in which information is planned and then disseminated to the relevant users either at different intervals. The guest speaker further noted that during communication a project manager need to have done stakeholder analysis to identify the types of stakeholders (internal, external, primary, secondary or positive) that will help them decide on the levels of engagement with them. Any project is measured on the success of how it was able to engage its stakeholders. Engagement should cover both in management, board and client levels. Communication plan in projects will be a useful tool to avoid conflicts and increase sustainability of projects.
Every project is faced with the challenge of risks and uncertainties (Pritchard & PMP, 2014). Risks according to the guest speaker represent things that might happen or issues that have happened. Any project manager needs to be aware of such risks and provide mitigation measures in ensuring that they are dealt with. Project risks are important because they define the weak points, situations that need strengthening, or challenges that pose to occur. It is important then for project management teams to employ mitigation strategies to them. Any effective risk management strategy should be proactive which can identify risk and provide early signs and mitigation solutions before it occurs (Gido & Clements, 2014). The guest speaker further noted that having a clear risk management plan creates risk awareness and preparedness reducing effects resulting from them. Project management teams need to plan for risks early enough (Meredith, Mantel & Shafer, 2013).
A project manager is expected to provide leadership in projects (Kerzner, 2013). According to the guest speaker leadership is addressed on a number of dimensions. A good project leader should motivate and inspire employees to achieve the intended targets (Gido & Clements, 2014). The guest speaker did further note that the leadership style adopted should be one that can be acceptable and accommodative to all. Having clear reporting lines and governance techniques is important in ensuring that project success is achieved. A good reporting line will clearly define roles and responsibilities of each project team member. Other leadership skills expected of a project managers were discussed including those of engaging everyone, allowing negotiations where necessary, focusing on customer needs, and using professional tools that can make life better (Lientz & Rea, 2016).
In the interactive session the guest speaker was able to answer some of the questions. The guest speaker discussed on some of the common mistakes that occur in projects to be lack of planning, not assigning or delegating duties, micro management, lack of stakeholder engagement, and poor or lack reporting activities. It was noted that creation of plans is ideally important during project implementation to avoid any kind of mishaps. A visual summary of triple three constraints of time, quality, and cost guided by vision, strategies and tasks closed the presentation. To ensure success in projects a good manager need to utilize them to provide guidelines of achieving objectives (Heagney, 2016).
Conclusion
A number of notable knowledge and skills were obtained from the guest presentation. For any project manager to be successful the focus should be on planning, design, implementation, and execution. A good project plan covering scope, deliverables, communication, risks, quality, leadership & management, time, budget and human resources need to be formulated. The presentation was supported with illustration real data of the actual work done in projects for examples table of budgets, risks and communication. The report further provided avenues for those wishing to join project management professional field by providing suggestions and guidelines to follow. In summarized form the guest speaker report provided reasons, roles, working structure and challenges originating from project management work. It provided a clear picture in which project manager can apply when implementing project in ideal situations.
References lists
Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA
Gido, J. and Clements, J., 2014. Successful project management. Nelson Education
Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn
Heldman, K., 2015. PMP Project Management Professional Exam Deluxe Study Guide: Updated for the 2015 Exam. John Wiley & Sons
Hillier, F. and Hillier, M., 2013. Introduction to management science. McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Hwang, B.G. and Ng, W.J., 2013. Project management knowledge and skills for green construction: Overcoming challenges. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), pp.272-284
Lientz, B. and Rea, K., 2016. Breakthrough technology project management. Routledge
Macbeth, D. K., & Project Management Institute. (2012). Procurement and supply in projects: Misunderstood and under-researched. Newtown Square, Pa: Project Management Institute
Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2013. Project management in practice. Wiley Global Education
Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International Journal of Project Management, 32(2), pp.202-217
Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons
Snyder, C.S., 2014. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute.
Verzuh, E., 2015. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons
Pemsel, S. and Wiewiora, A., 2013. Project management office a knowledge broker in project-based organisations. International Journal of Project Management, 31(1), pp.31-42
Pritchard, C.L. and PMP, P.R., 2014. Risk management: concepts and guidance. CRC Press.
Stark, J., 2015. Product lifecycle management. In Product Lifecycle Management (pp. 1-29). Springer International Publishing
Taylan, O., Bafail, A.O., Abdulaal, R.M. and Kabli, M.R., 2014. Construction projects selection and risk assessment by fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS methodologies. Applied Soft Computing, 17, pp.105-116
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