Report On Project Management Methadologies

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Project management methodologies are the various ways in which projects are initiated, planned, and executed unto completion. For different industries and different types of projects, there are specific methodologies that can be used. Their aim is to achieve a project success in an organizations and professionals. To evaluate how project management methodologies aids in the management of projects it requires the understanding of what projects are and how organizations manage projects.

Project is a worked performed by an organization one time to produce a unique outcome. By one time means that the work must have a definite beginning and definite end, and by unique where the work result is different in one more ways from anything the organization has produce before. Example of projects can be like building a new house, developing new software application and creating a new radio commercial. Projects have seven constraints which are scope, time, cost, quality, resources, risks and customer satisfaction. This sevens constraints will give impact to the projects whether it will be successful or not. What exactly is a successful project? From a utopian academic standpoint, the "ultimate" successful project would be defined as a project that delivered as promised which the project produces all the stated deliverables. Secondly, it must complete on time where the project must complete within the approved schedules. Thirdly, it must complete within budget where the project must complete under the approved budget. Fourthly, it must deliver quality where the project deliverables must meet all functional, performance, and quality specification. Fifthly, it must achieve original purposes where the project achieves its original goals, objectives and purpose. Moreover, it must also meet all stakeholder expectations where the complete expectations of each key stakeholder are met, including all client acceptance criteria, and each key stakeholder accepts the project results without reservation. Last but not least it must maintains "win-win" relationships where the needs of the project are met with a "people focus" and do not require sacrificing the needs of individual team members or vendors. Participants on successful project should be enthusiasm when the project is complete and eager to repeat a similar experience. An excellent technique is to identify, document, review and approve any criteria that will be used to measure the success of the project during the project definition and planning processes.

Before reviewing on how to make a project successful, I would like highlight about the troubled project and why there are "less than successful" projects. Generally the reasons of project troubles can be classified in two groups which are project level issues and organizational level issues. One of the key differences in two groups is the level of control that the project manager has over these factors. For project level issues, the project manager has tremendous influence on these matters. In most cases, the project manager can either avoid the issue or take no action to resolve it if does occur. For organizational level issues, the project manager cannot generally fix the problem, but the project manager can certainly have influence on them by asking the right questions, anticipating and associated risk and issues, focusing extra effort to compensate for the issue and developing contingency plans to minimize the impact on the project. Examples of common reason for troubled projects can be such as project not aligned with business unit or insufficient funding or purpose and goals not clear and trust relationship were not established.

In order to control this troubled projects a proper project management needs to be implemented. What is exactly a project management? Project management is simply the process of managing projects. Although this definition is not particularly helpful it does illustrate three key points. First key point is Project management covers a vast array of subjects, processes, skills, and tools, but the key fundamental of project management are straightforward and are consistent across industries. Second key point is in order to understand project management, we need to understand what is a project is. The nature of project provides insights into the scope and challenges of project management. Third key point is we need to understand what is implied by the term managing and how this compares against traditional management. Examples of common troubled projects like project not aligned with business units can be overcome by implementing the project management where we can verify alignment before project kicks off. Common troubled project like insufficient funding can also be overcome by understand project impact of organizational structure where we ensure a proper senior management involvement in project organization. As for the purpose and goals not clear and trust relationship were not established can be overcome by gain acceptance of project purpose, goals, and success upfront. We must ensure all stakeholders are identified and consulted by constantly communicate and validate understanding.

As the organizational operating environment continues to become more global, more competitive, and more demanding, organizations must adapt. They must become more efficient, more productive. They must "do with less". They must continually innovate. They must respond rapidly to a fast changing environment. How can they do this? How can they do this in a strategic manner? How can they do this and still have proper management controls? They can do this with effective project management methodologies. Project management methodologies consist of four to five process groups, and a control system. Regardless of the methodology or terminology used, project management uses the same basic processes. Process groups typically include Initiation, Planning and Design, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling and Closing. . There are effectively two de-facto Project Management standards in the world which are PMBOK and PRINCE2. The PMBOK is formally known as the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. It is a recognized standard for the project management profession. It is based on good practice in the project management community and covers those practices which are considered applicable to most projects most of the time. The PMBOK is very popular in the construction, engineering and mining sectors. The PMBOK covers topics such as different types of contracts and earned value calculations. These are not covered in any detail in the PRINCE2 method. It provides a project manager with a toolkit to go on and manage projects in a professional manner. As the PMBOK is a guide, a project manager can apply the concepts contained within even if the organization is not a "PMBOK shop".

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge from Fifth Edition provides guidelines for managing individual projects and defines project management related concepts. It also describes the project management life cycle and its related processes, as well as the project life cycle. The Guide recognizes 47 processes that fall into five basic process groups and ten knowledge areas that are typical of almost all projects.

The five process groups are:

Initiating

Planning

Executing

Monitoring and Controlling

Closing

The ten knowledge areas are:

Project Integration Management

Project Scope Management

Project Time Management

Project Cost Management

Project Quality Management

Project Human Resource Management

Project Communications Management

Project Risk Management

Project Procurement Management

Project Stakeholders Management (added in 5th edition)

Each of the ten knowledge areas contains the processes that need to be accomplished within its discipline in order to achieve an effective project management program. Each of these processes also falls into one of the five basic process groups, creating a matrix structure such that every process can be related to one knowledge area and one process group. The PMBOK Guide is meant to offer a general guide to manage most projects most of the time. There are currently two extensions to the PMBOK Guide: the Construction Extension to the PMBOK Guide applies to construction projects, while the Government Extension to the PMBOK Guide applies to government projects.

Unlike the PMBOK, PRINCE2 is a project management methodology from the Office of Government Commerce OGC in the UK -and popular in Western Europe and Australia. It is one of the most widely accepted methods in the world for managing projects. The PRINCE2 method is based around a series of underlying Principles along with seven Processes which show the project manager how to manage a project under the PRINCE2 method. There are also a series of project management Themes. PRINCE2 dominates in the government sector and is also very popular with organizations that prefer a structured approach to their projects. It is commonly used in the pharmaceutical sector. Because of a background in IT projects, it is also very popular for IT project teams. To use PRINCE2 successfully it needs to be embraced by the organization or at least at the department or divisional level.

Prince 2 was designed to 'get the job done' and is a fairly prescriptive and structured approach to successfully undertake a project in step by step. It is being designed to reduce projects running over time, not delivering what were required viz. functions, benefits and quality, and costing more than was budgeted. Under the Prince 2 Methodology, there are 5 Broad Phases in the Project Lifecycle and these are covered by 8 processes which document and define what needs to be done at each stage. It is Simple but effective. Therefore what's the difference between both? Both approaches focus on best practices. However, the primary difference is that the OGC's is a methodology in its purest form, whereas PMI's PMBOK is more of a framework - which places greater emphasis on the skills required. For example, Prince 2 will tell you that you need to estimate the duration of a task, when to do it and track it whereas the PMBOK focuses more on the techniques and skills necessary to estimate work. Perhaps the best description of the two approaches compares Prince 2 to a "Recipe Book" and the PMBOK as a "Techniques for Cooking Book". To take the analogy further a good chef needs to know how to create great dishes with a Recipe Book, and needs to understand the techniques used for cooking the dish.