Human behavior is thought to be an instinctual action that sometimes is said to be borderline irrational. Such word seems to not fit the everyday vocabulary of the business lifestyle and that is for a reason. Human behavior is not irrational and has a specific outcome. Every day, has a beginning, a process, and an ending; this ironically is the definition of a project. A project is just that, something that has a beginning, a process, and an end. One stats every day with a new project and completes it's whether efficiently or not by the end of the day. To have such projects take place, a process was created. This process is called the Project Management Process. This process consists of 5 steps that can fit into basically every aspect of our life’s; either in business or not. In this paper, the process steps will be defined and explored in greater detail to exemplify their importance. The project management processes are, initiating, planning, monitoring and executing, and project closure. This process was initially added to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) in 1991 as the committee felt that the project process needed to be defined.
This paper started with exemplifying or simplifying that human behavior is thought to be irrational but then explained that it is not and that it follows a process. The first process as is in any project is the initiating process. This process is defined as being when a description of the product, activity, project, etc. is described and a project manager is assigned to the action. This, basically is when the actual situation or “project”, is defined and the upper management decides who will oversee it. While it sounds simple and straightforward, it is extremely important.
As Eliot Burdett eloquently once said, “Understanding the Problem is Half of the Solution” The initiating phase of any project is the time you the project manager must sit back and understand the task at hand. One as stated in Knutson, J. (1999), will undergo a series of steps Justin this first stage. First, the project must be defined with the business needs, requirements and criteria. This means, anything from budgetary needs to who will be the sponsor for the project. This first step defines what the initiating phase of a project is. The second step is the definition of the business need for the project with the scope and goal definition. The next step is the breakdown of the stakeholders and the risk assessment. The following step is the definition of the role the project manager will hold in this project. Then a consensus of the stakeholders should be created and a project plan formulated. This article by Knutson, J. (1999) continues to illustrate that while it is the very beginning of a project, it might be one of the most important steps. The author uses an analogy connecting it to a race by stating that the stamina, the stride, the style, and the strength are extremely important in winning a race but without understanding what they are in for, they cannot successfully prepare for the race itself.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”, wise words spoken by Benjamin Franklin. These words bring forth the next stage of the project management process; the planning phase. While the initiating phase of understanding, and defining the project was extremely important an argument can be made that this following step in the most important of them all. During the planning phase of the project, a detailed project plan is created. This step is in a way organic because it takes account possible changes and adapts to situations that arise. Within this stage of the process, a various step must be taken to ensure a successful execution of the project.
The Planning stage includes the scope definition, which is a written scope statement explaining the project reason, the major deliverables, and the specific project intentions. The project definition, which is the itemization of the project deliverables into detailed projects for better control. The task definition, which is the labeling the tasks that will be performed to execute the project needs. The task sequencing, which is the categorizing the dependencies among the tasks. A duration estimation, which will estimate a timeframe for the tasks defined. A schedule development, which will provide a timeline for the defined tasks. A cost estimate, which is the initial estimate of all the above added together. A cost budget, which will create a detailed budget of individual tasks. And a plan integration, which is creating a document putting all the above together in s coherent plan. And after, these steps are followed, an extra set of steps may occur due to the volatility of the project itself. These steps are the quality planning, the role and responsibility definition, the organization planning, staffing, communication planning, risk identification, solution development, procurement planning, solicitation, and procurement. This demonstrates the largest chunk of an actual project lies with the planning stage and therefore it could be stated as the most important part of the project.
An example of this is the case of the Eifel Tower by Howlett, S. P. (2015). In this case, two sets of turbine had to be installed into the Eifel tower without a crane and without disturbing the usual tourist traffic that the tower receives since it is the postcard destination of Paris. This case explains that it took two years for project completion but when analyzing the breakdown of the project, it is easy to identify that planning phase of the project took a lot longer and the actual work itself. The project was first brought up in late 2013, then the first visit was done in January 2014, and by December of 2014, the project was established and only in January/February of 2015 that the project was conducted and completed. Therefore, out of two years of a project lifecycle, only 2 months was of executing the project and nearly two years planning. This project was a success and it was stated to have gone smoothly because of proper planning because,” By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”, Benjamin Franklin.
The last part of the project management process is called closing process. This part concludes all the business activities, formally complete the project, phase, or contractual obligations. When a project arrives closing process, which indicated that all the process of this project has already been done. The closing process includes formally premature closure establishment of the project.
The project manager should be adjusting the things to ensure that a certain project is brought to its appropriate conclusion. The closing process is usually highlighted by a formal written project report. There are five elements: "a formal acceptance of the final product, Weighted Critical Measurements, lessons learned, project resources, and a formal project closure notification to higher management". (Chandra, 2013)
In the project management cycle, the closing process is often not reserved seriously by others. The closing process is an important part of the project management cycle, just like any other part of the processes. Here are three aspects of the closing part:
First, the closing process is the last but important part of the project. How does the project manager evaluate the current performance of the project? They will collect the latest information and data on the project. Comparing with these data and project plans, and then determine the performance of the process whether it fulfills ahead of schedule or fall behind; whether the quality, accord with the requirements; whether the customers are satisfied with the project.
At the same time, a project manager is predicting the completion of the project performance through the closing process as well. The project manager can find the potential issue of the project and think about the way to prove it. It seems like you and your friends are having a long-distance travel. When you arrive at every single place, you will always take some time to look at your plan, for example, you need to know where to go next and need to set the trip budget.
Second, the closing process is a good opportunity to communicate with customers. It is necessary to summarize the previous period of the project with the customers after you complete a project. On the one hand, it can get to know whether the customer satisfied with the work. On the other hand, it is a good opportunity for a business company to ask the customers' signature of the file. It is hard for you to find a suitable way to ask the customer to sign the file after they leave. Especially when the customers and the business company have a dispute.
Third, the closing process is a good time to collect and protect the working file. It is easy to collect the project file through project team members during the closing process. If not, the team members might go to another project team or some might leave after the project done. If that happens, it is hard for a project manager to collect the project file from project team members.
It happened in a real world. A project manager Andy took an unfinished project which has technique issues from John. Andy spends plenty of time to solve technical problems through coordinating many of suppliers. However, the chief executive is not satisfied with Andy's work. He asked Andy to talk with the previous manager John about this work. It is not a good idea because John has no longer in the company. If Andy wants to do the work, he needs to get in touch with John, which is not easy to do.
The project management process is usually based on the project cycle. To provide guidance for the implementation of the project by defining the various stages of the project. However, when implementing the project, it still needs to be analyzed according to different circumstances. There is going to be a series of problems if there is no project management process.
For example, the people from different departments do not know what to do. The project manager and staffs do not clearly understand their work. Only when setting a perfect project management process, the project management work can be carried out smoothly.
When an effective project management process is developed, all the work can be carried out under a unified standard. The process determines performance. The current project management is more emphasis on the job responsibilities. Nevertheless, it is impossible for project management team members to fully fulfill their work. The process is an effective mechanism for promoting job duties.
For example, in a project management process, a company need to consider the project various factors, such as the impact of the relevant units of the project. So, a company needs to have a specific progress management process to fully consider these factors. Otherwise these professional and technical management staffs are unable to do their work. Establishing a set of process management system can have a horizontal link between each department. That will strengthen and control the project.
The project management team member will be more motivated to complete their work. When the project management process is developed, each department can be more easily to support and cooperate with each other. All the team members work together for the common goal. The efficiency of the work will relate to the success of the project. In a project management team, it is important to strengthen the team communication. In a project, no one can create value without teamwork. Only when putting up all the processes into a holistic framework, they can create the value. It is a set of interrelated activities which creates values for the customers. Without processes, the departments in a company cannot get the information in time, such as quality, cost, revenue.
Narrowing the time to get familiar with the work and increase the efficiency of project implementation to increase the success rate of the project. No matter what kind of business we have, there are specific business processes. The process can guide us to complete a specific business. In order to let the customers satisfied with the company's work and achieve the value of the enterprise, the company will require all the participants consider the entire project management process at the beginning of the work. The factors include quality, cost, project management schedule, customer satisfaction and so on. It is necessary to form work by interfacing with the various departments of the company to achieve the goal of project management. By doing this, it will narrow the time and can improve the project quality and cost.