Why Project Management is Vital
A project can be defined to have a “beginning and an end” (Marion E Haynes, 1996)
and is only a temporary thing. Each project is different as in there is routine to follow but to meet the goals within cost, schedule etc., project management brings them all together.
What is project management? One definition states that project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.” (What is project management? B, n.d)
Through this essay I hope to reflect my new understanding of the topic and how valuable it is.
Our first lecture was about being a project manager. Just like on the apprentice, appointing the project manager should be the initial task. The project manager should also track progress throughout the task depending on how urgent specific parts of the project, depends if it is weekly, monthly or even daily.
A good project manager would be confident form the outset of the task with good delegation skills, with no team member being overworked nor underworked. They should have a good understanding of the project area, so they can be a focal point of information for the group. A project leader is also the point of contact between the team and the client, as a result, communication skills are vital to achieve a product that the client desires.
The next vital part of project management is work breakdown structure (WBS). WBS Is a ‘key project deliverable that organizes the team's work into manageable sections.’ (WBS, n.d), With the scope being a part of project planning, it involves gathering a comprehensive idea of project goals in terms of tasks, deadlines, prototypes and costs. The WBS can be expanded to projects that are much greater and will show a broken-down version of the projects needs, task and things that need to be accomplished. The above example shows the format of a tree structure (figure 1), however you can also use the format of an indented list.
Giving a project a time frame is valid as “a project is temporary in that it has a beginning and end in time”. (What is a project management A, n.d) Therefore, scheduling is instrumental to managing a project, as managing the time taken to complete the project, gives a goal to be met. You can estimate the financial cost and timeframe of the project by looking at a similar historical project and then comparing to your own, this is good because it is a simple method and would give you a ballpark figure to aim for, however it is not individual to your project. You could also estimate by the its components, giving them an individual time frame and cost and therefore combining them for the project, this is a bit more of a complex method however is more accurate to the individual project.
The estimations would give a leader the opportunity to know whether they should be hitting deadlines in terms of costs and time, also to what resources the project needs. This administrative action should save time in the duration of the project. After estimating, the WBS can be re-ordered into a visual display with the task’s individual timeframes and priorities. This will give the team the chance to look at what task should be completed at which time and the leader gets to see which member will be delegated to a specific task, at a specific time. Examples of this include; network logic diagrams, gaant charts and milestone charts.
In the book ‘The Mythical Man Month’ I have read chapter 2 ‘The Mythical Man-month” which is an essay based on estimating and scheduling. On page 14 the author states that we are mistaken to “confuse effort with progress” (Frederick P. Brooks, Jr, 1995) and assume that “men and months and interchangeable.” (Frederick P. Brooks, Jr, 1995) What exactly is a man-month? A man month is a “unit of work representing the productive effort of one person in a four-week period.” (man-month, n.d) The first quote is saying that the progress of the project and the effort put in is not a direct correlation.
Also, the amount people working on a project and the time are two separate variables. For example, if you have 2 people working a project due in four months. After the first month, they say they are behind schedule by a month. Adding an extra person to the team would seem to fix this problem if men and months were interchangeable. However most of the time this is not the case.
The amount of people working a project and the number of months it takes will increase the cost of the project, however “Progress does not” (Frederick P. Brooks, Jr, 1995). So, when a task is limited by constraints you can’t control, adding extra effort won’t affect the time it will take to complete the task.
Project management also involves risk management, quality management and being able do manage project changes. For managing risk, you have to identify, evaluate, find out the likely hood of the risk occurring, and then ranking the risks. These can then be put in a risk event table. Based on their position in the ranking then depends on how to deal with the risk. If a risk has a low probability with low impact and severity and is ranked last, then the action would be to accept the risk. However, if the risk is high and the impact would be unacceptable for the project, it has to be stopped. So, the solution is to avoid that risk and find another solution to the problem. Risk management is very important for the project to run well, so it has to accessed constantly throughout the project.
Quality is planned into the project from the start. You can’t go through a project and have a product that half works and looks terrible. That is just not acceptable, therefore managing the quality can help improve the products outcome. Identifying standards set out by the client and achieving them. This can be put on a quality management plan. This is a document that is worked on throughout the project and addresses control, assurance and overall quality improvement to the project.
Sometimes things don’t go to plan and therefore we have to adapt, overcome and change the plan. An example could be the client and stakeholders change one of the specifications set at the beginning of the project, or the materials you required are now not available. It is down to the project manager to lead the team and change the plan. However, one change could affect the scope, schedule or cost. These constraints must be considered and evaluated. The earlier on in the project these problems come to light the better the solution. Performance reporting can help identify problems early on.
Spotify do things differently compared to other companies. During a project the problems are send by the overall manager to separate squads, which have their own missions. They aim to be “autonomous and aligned” (Andreas Tjernsli, 2017) meaning, leader focus on what problems to solve, but let the squads figure out the best solution, this allows for a very close together, happy productive working environment. The squads also interact with each other to find best solutions to their work and to access their code as an open source model. All of the work produced will be reviewed by another squad. Ultimately, getting the most superior solution as possible.
To conclude, I have reflected on my understanding of project management from what I have learnt this past term. There are many ways to manage a project, but they all involve the key skills, tools and techniques to produce the final product. Everyone’s role in a team or squad is important especially a project leader because they provide direction and insightfulness.