Introduction:
The skills, tools and management processes required to typically undertake a distinct enterprise for the purpose of producing defined deliverables within the specified time, cost and quality constraints is called project management and the unique endeavour represent a project (Atkinson, 1999). This report is a critical reflection of my role in a project group. It will comprise of the phases of project management used to complete the project and my personal reflections on how it affected the completion of the project. The report also consists of the challenges faced while implementing the PMBOK life cycle and my learnings from it.
Team Effort:
Team effort plays an important role in the success of project management. Though project management can be done solo, the effective success isn’t possible without a team. Thus everyone including the project manager has to involve in the project (Muslihat, 2018). The diverse nature of the people involved in the project complicates the success of project but the effective communication plan, collaboration and shared ideas are practised to overcome the diversity and come together as a team. This led to the success of our project.
Project Life Cycle:
The framework for successful management of a project is provided by the project life cycle (Patanakul, Iewwongcharoen, & Milosevic, 2010). The project lifecycle is composed of Five(5) phases namely
1. Selection and Initiation
2. Planning
3. Execution
4. Control and Monitoring
5. Closing
These Five phases help the project manager to effectively plan the project management plan (Westland, 2007).
Selection and Initiation:
The selection and initiation are the first step in the project life cycle. The problems or opportunities in a business environment are chosen and solutions to them form a business case. Our project Academic Management System for RMIT as any other project must have a feasible solution and it must meet the strategic objective of the business. The objectives and scope of the project are well defined in this phase which is critical for the next phases.
Planning
Since the objectives and scope of the project are defined it is now the time to undertake detailed panning so that the execution phase is properly carried out. It is ensured that the execution phase is properly sequenced, resourced, executed and controlled. This is exactly the phase where the AMS project failed initially. The reason for this is that the lack of proper project plan and also the lack of proper communication plan.
Execution
Now that the planning is done it is time to execute the project so that the objectives are developed. This is the longest of all the phases of the project management life cycle. We have chosen an iterative model for this phase to ensure that all the objectives are achieved before we move on to the testing and releasing the product.
Control and Monitoring
In this phase the actual performance of the project is compared with the project performance and necessary actions are taken immediately. The control and monitoring phase are carried out even after the completion of the project. This is to ensure that the project doesn’t fail after its completion and take care of any complexities that may arise. Team progress and performance are measure by key performance indicators (KPI’s) (Peterman, 2016).
Closing
This is the last phase in the PMBOK Project management life cycle. It involves successful delivery of the objectives or deliverables to the stakeholders, preparing closing documents, releasing staff etc. After the completing of this phase a post implementation review is implemented to ensure project success.
Advantages of PMBOK project management life cycle
As we have established in the team effort section this project is a collaborative work. Although there were online sources where the team could interact and share ideas, these methods are not great than face to face interactions. IT wasn’t until after the third week the team have realized this, and we have decided to set up weekly meetings and agendas. We have seen 100% participations because of these face to face meetings and see progress on the project. The project management life cycle helped us all along the way. The following are the major benefits that I have observed.
1. Establish Goals
2. Objectives
3. Communication Plan
4. Schedule analysis and Plan
5. Risks and solutions
The phases of the project management life cycle helped the team in coming up with a proper schedule plan to compare to the actual performance. Thereby we always know the performance and act on it immediately. The organized communication plan provided for early identification of issues and solutions that are necessary. Thus, the project life cycle helps in avoiding risks and failures (Melton, 2007).
Disadvantages of PMBOK project management life cycle
Project management life cycle is great, but we have faced certain issues with it. It is a complex process. Often some of the team members are confused by it and it would delay the project deliverable. The project runs without any hindrances if the communication plan between team members is efficient. The diverse nature of the team members i.e. Chinese team members having difficulty to communicate in English was a problem. But we have come together as a team to realize our variations and help each other to always come up with a solution. Because of the deadline it almost felt like the room for creativity is very low in this life cycle but this allowed the team to timely delivery of the deliverables (Picincu, 2018). Some other disadvantages of PMBOK life cycle are as follows:
A. Complex nature PMBOK life cycle when it comes to small projects
B. The standard has to modified with regard to change in scope, time and budget.
C. The project team, since formed of various disciplines, it is difficult to manage them (Obrutsky, 2015).
Experience on applying the PMBOK project management life cycle:
Lack of following proper project management principles led to the failure of the Academic Management System (AMS) of RMIT. With the help of a proper project management life cycle the objectives and scope of the project can be well defined and successful completion of project can be achieved.
What went well?
As discussed earlier the effective communication plan and the face to face interaction were critical for this success. Review after reach phase enabled to take precautions to be able to deliver the deliverables timely. The team meetings were very effective as we could find solutions for weekly deliverables on time. The shared ideas of the team had a great impact on the entire project. Effective communication plan as a part of the PMBOK life cycle helped in avoiding any miscommunication that would slow down the project. The work load was distributed among the team equally. Every team member played their part in successful completion of each deliverable. I was the team leader to delivery schedule base line and cost management plan. The team was very cooperative and as discussed earlier the communication plan was laid out very well that there no issues raised during that time.
Challenges in using the PMBOK lice cycle:
Scope creep is one of the major challenges that we have faced. I have experienced this and now believe that it is a real phenomenon (Brown, 2000). Some of the team members faced trouble in understand the difference between a project and the product. This slowed us down initially but later we have resolved this issue. There were various choices that we needed make such as outsourcing the project and staffing choices. Team members had different opinions and often such decision had us interact face to face as discussing online wasn’t sufficient.
PMBOK life cycle role in these challenges :
Some of the challenges that we have faced during the PMBOK Life cycle were very real but the fact that PMBOK life cycle is very well structured the challenges paved way for better solutions. Like in the case where we had to meet in person for face to face discussions. Though it was little inconvenient than discussing online, we found it to be very effective. As the complexity of the project increased day by day the face to face interactions left us with little or no ambiguity in the task. If we have chosen to discuss online, it would have led to serious confusion in every task and that would have made us lag behind the schedule.
Would I do differently the next time?
I think the team came together in successful completion of the project on time and time delivery of the deliverables. Despite the differences the team members learned constantly and continuously provided to the project success. The PMBOK life cycles had a great impact on the team as it made us review our work after each phase and establish a communication that worked very well. So, I would implement the PMOK life cycle the next time exactly the same way but without any hesitation because now I understand the effectiveness of the PMBOK life cycle.
Conclusion
To conclude the learning and applying experience of PMBOK life cycle was great. I found it very beneficial and it led to the successful development of the Academic Management System (AMS) for RMIT. I have previously worked it teams and that experience helped me in this situation. I’ve realise that those team management experiences fit very well into the Project Management life cycle. Those experiences turnout be invaluable in various situations. I’ve always thought that documentation is overrated but the fact that scope creep and
Weiss and Wysocki text(1992), whether I realized it or not. Many of the specific organizational reports, however, I think are often taken for granted. They are beneficial to realizing the scope and keeping it in focus. The product, writing a grant proposal, is also a necessary skill that is not covered in any other course offered at this time in the Instructional Design, Development, & Evaluation (IDD&E) program or elsewhere in the Syracuse University system. At this program level, in graduate and doctoral work, writing a technical document or grant proposal is invaluable. I think the course is appropriately offered as a core to the IDD&E program.
References:
Atkinson, R. (1999). Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria. International journal of project management, 17(6), 337-342.
Brown, K. A. (2000). Developing project management skills: A service learning approach. Project Management Journal, 31(4), 53-58.
Melton, T. (2007). 2 – The project life-cycle. In T. Melton (Ed.), Project Management Toolkit (Second Edition) (pp. 7-12). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Muslihat, D. (2018). Why you need good teamwork for project management success
. Retrieved from https://zenkit.com/en/blog/why-you-need-good-teamwork-for-project-management-success/
Obrutsky, S. (2015). Comparison and contrast of project management methodologies PMBOK and SCRUM. In: Obtenido de https://www. researchgate. net/profile/Santiago_Obrutsky2/publication/305969672_C omparison_and_contrast_of_project_management_methodologies_PMBOK_and_S CRUM/links/57a7a9cc08ae455e8546d244. pdf.
Patanakul, P., Iewwongcharoen, B., & Milosevic, D. (2010). An Empirical Study on the use of Project Management Tools and Techniques across Project Life-Cycle and their Impact on Project Success. Journal of General Management, 35(3), 41-66. doi:10.1177/030630701003500304
Peterman, R. (2016). Project Management Phases: Exploring Phase #4 – Monitoring & Control. Retrieved from https://project-management.com/project-management-phases-exploring-phase-4-monitoring-control/
Picincu, A. (2018). Describe the Advantages and Disadvantages of Project Management. Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/info-8774906-describe-advantages-disadvantages-project-management.html
Westland, J. (2007). The Project Management Life Cycle: A Complete Step-By-Step Methodology for Initiating, Planning, Executing & Closing a Project Successf: Kogan Page Publishers.