| You lie awake at night
wondering how you are going to hit deadlines and meet production
goals and keep your team motivated an keep the executives off
your back and keep the customers coming back. Being a manager
can sometimes be like living in a waking, walking nightmare.
Isn’t there a better way to get this job done? We thought
you’d never ask. Our unique, Management
Training workshops are designed to provide you with everything
you could possibly ask for in project management training. From
planning to conflict resolution to communicating clearly with
team members to conducting effective meetings and so much more,
we will give you the management skills you need to get the job
done. And we promise you will sleep better, too.
What is a Project
A Project is series of related jobs usually directed toward
some major output and requiring a significant period of time
to perform.1
Project Management
can be defined as a planning, directing and controlling resources
to meet the technical, cost, and time constraints of the project.2
A project requires a different kind of managerial concept
as compared to the conventional systems. This is due to the
fact that in a project a team consisting of highly specialized
individuals comes together for a short span of time to achieve
some "Common Objective".
"Common Objective" is the key phrase here, because
individuals from diverse technical backgrounds come together
and have to work as a team. An integration of this diverse
intellectual pool along with a diverse technical skill requires
special managerial skill.
A few aspects of the managerial skills required for the purpose
are listed below.
Work Break Down Structure.
The work required to obtain the objective is broken down
and divided into tasks and subtasks. Various teams responsible
for the completion of the project then perform these tasks.
Organizational Structure.
The management
can choose one of three organizational structures to follow
in their projects. These are the Pure, Functional and Matrix
Structure.
Pure Project: This structure is the self-contained autonomous
unit, the strengths of which are speed and flexibility. Here
the project manager enjoys full authority over the project
and team members have to report to one boss only. One main
disadvantage of this structure is that since the resources
are not being shared across the organization there will be
duplication of resources and wastage.
The second type of structure is the Functional where one
department services the needs of the entire organization.
For instance the Research
and Development department takes care of the R & D
of the entire product range of the organization. This structure
gives the members to work on many projects simultaneously
and widens their horizon. However this creates the need of
reporting to multiple bosses and thus creates problems for
the members.
Matrix structure is a mix between functional and pure projects.
Here each project utilizes people from different functional
areas. The project manager decides what task is to be done
and at what time whereas the functional head determines the
people who will work on the project. One main disadvantage
here is that a person has two bosses and very often it creates
a doubt in the mind of the person as to whose orders have
to be followed.
Scheduling.
Once the tasks have been identified a schedule is formed
regarding what activity is to be done at what point of time.
This can be done with the use of a technique known as the
"Critical Path Method". CPM is a graphical technique
which shows the use of resources, time at which these are
being used and the cost involved.
The benefit of using CPM is that the manager knows what are
the various activities involved in the project and then he
can plan accordingly. This is essential as without such planning
starting the project becomes impossible. However there is
a flip side to it. Generally projects are of complex nature
and involve large degree of uncertainty. CPM is based on the
principle that activities follow a flow. So break in one step
ruins the entire path and then the entire activity has to
be performed again. A relevant example can be seen in the
current Telecom scenario in India. Cellular operators invested
huge amount of money and paid entry fee to the government.
This fee was included in the cost structure and pricing was
done accordingly. With the entrance of the players with WLL,
the plans of the cellular operator went awry. The WLL players
did not have to pay any fee to the government and were able
to provide the same services at a much lower price. Due to
this a large market of the cellular operators was taken away
from them and their plans went for a toss. CPM does not include
provisions for any such contingency and this is a draw back
of this method.
By. Dr. J.S. Donald
Project Management Training - Obtaining the Common Objective
Project Management Quote
"Be courageous! Have faith! Go Forward!"
Thomas Edison
Suggested Reading:
Effective Project Management:
Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme, Third Edition
by Robert K. Wysocki
Project
Management : A Managerial Approach
by Jack R. Meredith, Samuel J. Mantel
Project
Management (The Briefcase Book Series)
by Gary R. Heerkens
Software Project Management
Kit for Dummies
by Greg Mandanis, Allen Wyatt
Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling,
and Controlling
by Harold Kerzner
Project Management ToolBox : Tools and Techniques for the
Practicing
Project Manager
by Dragan Z. Milosevic
Earned
Value Project Management, Second Edition
by Quentin W. Fleming, Joel M. Koppelman
Critical Chain Project Management, Second Edition
by Lawrence P. Leach |
