Assessment One: Essay
Introduction
Management characteristic such as the human resource management is an important aspect in project management and determines the success of a project. Basically, effective management of personnel should be embraced by project managers where all the workers’ requirements are fulfilled. As noted by many project management scholars, this includes effective recruitment process, job allocation, and further training of project staff. This paper focuses of the project management aspects on personnel and the project management tools employed to check the progress of a progress. Moreover, the paper also addresses some of the constraints experienced in a project and the integration of a project with organizational goals.
Management of Personnel in a Project
The building of a project team is one of the management characteristics of projects that need to be considered by a project manager. As noted by Williams, Thomas, & Hodgson (2006), effective project teams do not happen by chance; rather, they are carefully constructed. In fact, a great deal of preparation is required in developing the necessary steps for identifying the project team members and to monitor, manage, and motivate them until they achieve the desired collective performance. Many project managers are confronted with the challenge of forming effective project teams because individual project team members have diverse backgrounds. To mitigate this, a project manager should be involved in the recruitment based on the objectives of the project at hand.
The first stage of a project team development process encapsulates an evaluation of the type of skills possessed and needed of the project members for them to perform their project duties effectively. For instance, those projects that require high technical complexity will require skilled human resources possessing the requisite technical skills. After identifying the necessary skills, the project manager should then identify the people who match these. A project manager can hire new project team members or can decide to train the current personnel to attain the skills needed in accomplishing their tasks (Crawford, 2006). Such assessments will be predetermined by the desire to attain the best possible outcomes from the collective project’s goals. Sometimes, a manager may realize that, recruiting from external sources is more beneficial and cheaper than training in a short-term project while staff training can be applied in a long-term project.
Once the assessment has been done, negotiations should be done with the potential team members to determine their level of interest in joining the project. This may require the project manager to engage the departmental heads since they are conversant with the talent needed to perform efficiently in the project, their skills, abilities, and competences as well as their willingness to join in the team. If the project manager fails to get the required personnel, they may try to negotiate a compromise (Pinto, 2012). For instance, it might the case that an identified employee is not willing to join into the team. In such as situation, the project manager may opt to recruit externally and identify a talent that can be hired on a contract basis. Moreover, the schedule may also be adjusted to fit the new employee demands and availability.
It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure that the project team has a clear sense of mission, purpose, and direction. According to research conducted by White & Fortune (2002) one of the main determinants of project success is the project mission. White and Fortune observe that the project teams perform well when they have an articulate sense of purpose or project goals. Conversely, a common mistake made by project managers is to allocate each team member some specific tasks without letting them know how their distinctive tasks contribute to the success of the overall project (White & Fortune, 2002). In addition, this can keep the members apart from other areas of the project making them feel ignorant of what other project members are doing. Essentially, the project manager or the team leader should strive to thoroughly brief all the project team members on how the project is progressing and respond to their queries when necessary. During such briefing, the project goals are also clarified.
The productive interdependency of the various functional units in a project should also be taken into account. As suggested in the differentiation concept, people working in various departments may suggest how they can assist in other areas of the project (Nagarajan, 2004). For instance, those working in the accounting department may also be skilled in marketing and hence can assist when they are not doing the accounting work. Interdependency is also thought to be one way of promoting harmony in a project.
Project Management Tools
For a project to be carried out successfully, the project management team under the leadership of the project manager should make use of project tools. These include tools such as, project plan, milestone checklist, Gantt chart, project reviews, score cards, project management softwares, and delivery reviews. These tools assist in the administration of a project or in the overall monitoring of a project.
It is critical for all the projects to have a project plan as one of the basic tools of project management. One important aspect contained in the project plan is the scope of a project. In this regard, all the approaches and strategies to deal with the project scope and project objectives are addressed. Different strategies are used depending on the project purpose. As illustrated by Crawford (2006), project strategy is considered to be the key element of the project plan. In addition, a project plan also contains the resource allocation and the delivery schedule. Resource allocation is critical in project management because it allows the project manager to monitor the use of all the resources in a project. This allows the project manager to account for all the resources issued in a project. Without a project plan, resources may be misused or misplaced in a project, a situation that might lead to mistrust from the sponsors.
A milestone checklist assists a project manager to check the progress of the project. This project management tool does not need complicated software, but a simple Excel template can be used as a milestone checklist. Closely related to this, the Gantt chart is also an important project management tool. This serves to illustrate the diverse activities in a project and how such activities are inter-related (Tonnquist, 2009). As a tool for project management, a Gantt chart is utilized in almost all types of projects and can also be created through Excel. If the project is complicated, the Gantt chart can be obtained through the use of software tools such as MS Project.
MS Project is a project management tool that has widely been used by many project managers who are willing to embrace technology in the administration of their projects. Unlike other softwares, MS Project is specifically developed for the purpose of project management. According to the research conducted by Meredith & Mantel (2011), MS Project can be used as the principal tool in project management to keep track of complex projects that are situated in different geographical areas. Although there are other project management softwares packages that are being developed, the MS Project still remains the most relevant in this field and should be adopted by the project managers who want efficient management of their projects.
Project review as a project management tool is also indispensable in the administration of projects. In larger established organizations, comprehensive project reviews are conducted, as opposed to the basic reviews that are applied by smaller organizations. As highlighted by Meredith & Mantel (2011), project reviews are used to check the progress of a project and whether it is adhering to the set goals and standards. Furthermore, the researchers add that project reviews often come along with external or internal project audits that are conducted by a third party. Unlike the project reviews, delivery reviews ensure that the outcomes of the project address the customer requirements and meet quality standards. In most instances, delivery reviews are conducted by the main stakeholders in a project who may even make a decision to reject the project delivery due to non-compliance or quality standards.
Wong (2010) notes that every project manager should be in a position to track the progress of a project through score cards. With a project score card, a project manager can closely monitor the performance of the team members and report to the senior management and human resource department. The information provided in a score card can then be used for developing strategies for human resource development to ensure their performance in the project in enhanced. Project management is becoming an ideal way for conducting business in many organizations. This is because most organizational strategies need to be accomplished through projects. It is therefore paramount for a project to be integrated with the organizational strategy (Nagarajan, 2004). In order for a project to be in line with the organizational strategy, objectives of the project should be harmonized with the overall organizational objectives. In this case, the project scorecard should clearly measure the performance of the project in whether it is meeting the organizational goals.
Project Constraints and Integration
According to Cline, Guynes, & Simard (2010), it is critical for the project managers to understand the restrictions that may affect project progress. Generally, constraints hinder the actions of a project manager or project team and the success of a project depends on how effectively these are handled. For a project manager, the management of the possible constraints requires creativity and initiative. Some of the constraints that are likely include budget constraints, demands from clients, time constraints, and the need to have professionals to run some aspects of the project. For instance, Turner (2006) notes that the need to find a medical professional to handle health grants may affect the possibility of developing a health grant within the requisite time.
Time can be a constraint because any given project needs to be completed within a given time. When a project has distinct timelines on how it should be accomplished, it becomes easier for the project manager to organize how various tasks can be accomplished within the given timeline. According to Collyer & Warren (2009), setting a specific deadline for a project requires a project manager to make sure that all the tasks in project phases are handled within the set timeline. Time required to finish a project is determined by the urgency of the project, the availability of the required resources, and the complexity of the project. In relation to this, smaller projects may take a shorter time to finish while complex projects may require more time to finish (Meredith & Mantel, 2011). What a project manager should avoid is the last minute rush in order to beat the deadline since this is likely to compromise the quality of the project. To deal with the time constraint, operational project planning is required where the project manager assigns various responsibilities to the team involved in a project. Sometimes contingency plans are vital in dealing with the time constraints. These help a project manager to deal with the unplanned events that may occur and hence interfering with the project outcomes (Elearn, 2007). Moreover, time constraints may also be dealt with by having an appropriate schedule that allows the implementation of the various within the set timeline.
Budget is another form of constraint that can affect the success of a project. Clearly, every project should have a budget to support all the tasks involved in the project development. When a budget is drawn up, a project manager should make arrangements on how to acquire the funds needed in the project. This can be done by approaching the sponsors and other donors interested in funding a particular project. An effective project manager should first make arrangements on how a funding proposal should be written. Ideally, this proposal should be incorporated into the initial project proposal that aims to inform the possible donors about the benefits of the project and how it is likely to help the users (Kloppenborg, 2011). An organization or a company may also fund a project without having to seek for external donors. The amount of funding available may limit the scope of the project. For instance, the number of employees in a project may be reduced due to lack of funds to pay them. With few workers, the project scope may have to be reduced.
March (2003) notes that the quality constraint may also affect the success of a project. In most cases, quality may be restricted due to the level of specifications of a product or a service. For superior quality to be maintained in a project, some other resources such as time and money may be required. It therefore follows that quality as a constraint is affected by the time allocated to a project and the amount of funding that are available. With a budget constraint, there is a high likelihood of compromising quality. Likewise, for a good quality project to be accomplished, appropriate time is required. If there is a time constraint, a project is likely to be done in a hurry while only targeting to finish it within the set time and ignoring all the quality measures.
Additional constraints that affect a project include; schedule constraints, technology constraints, and management constraints. Smircich & Dunphy (2005) highlight that schedule constraints affect a project when some items are supposed to be supplied within a stipulated schedule, but fail to be supplied as planned. For instance, if the cranes required in a project are not available on the day when they are needed, a project manager may be required to adjust the project schedule until they are availed. As a result, the project might require some additional time.
Although technology is essential in a project development, it can also be a constraint to a project. For instance, a project might require some new technology that is not readily obtainable in the market. As such, the timings for the project will need to be adjusted to wait for the technology to be ready. Lately, modern technology may be more efficient in a project in terms of labour provision (Pinto, 2012). For this reason, new technology may be introduced to replace the existing technology that might not be effective in a project. A project that relies on outdated technology may take longer time to finish than a project utilizing modern technology.
Conclusion
The management of human resource is an important aspect that should be applied by project managers to ensure that projects are successful. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of a project manager to carry out a thorough recruitment process of the staff while considering their qualifications and the relevance of their skills to the project. This calls for the formation of project teams that are capable of executing the set goals. In order for the project manager to attain a high performance for the workers, there is need to motivate them by providing a favourable working environment. As such, project managers should apply the entire necessary project management tools as this will assist them to deal with the various constraints that occur in a project. To sum up, the success of a project is not just measured by how well various management techniques are applied but mainly by how well the project goals integrate with the overall organizational objectives.
References
Cline, M., Guynes, C. & Simard, K. (2010). Ace Project as a Project Management Tool. American Journal of Business Education, 3 (6), 63-70.
Collyer, S. & Warren, C. (2009). Project Management Approaches for Dynamic Environments. International Journal of Project Management, 27 (5), 355-364.
Crawford, L. (2006). Senior Management Perceptions of Project Management Competence. International Journal of Project Management, 23 (1), 7-16.
Elearn, L. (2007). Project Management. Michigan: Routledge.
Kloppenborg, T. (2011). Contemporary Project Management. Michigan: Cengage Learning.
March, J. (2003). Footnotes to Organizational Change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26 (3), 563-577.
Meredith, J. & Mantel, S. (2011). Project Management: A Managerial Approach. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Nagarajan, K. (2004). Project Management. Boston: New Age International.
Pinto, J. (2012). Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Smircich, L. & Dunphy, D. (2005). Strategic Management in an Enacted World. Academy of Management Review, 28 (12), 339-358.
Tonnquist, B. (2009). Project Management. New York: Academica.
Turner, R. (2006). Project Management Tools and Techniques for Today’s ILS Professional. New Library World, 107 (3), 164-170.
White, D. & Fortune, J. (2002). Current Practice in Project Management: An Empirical Study. International Journal of Project Management, 20 (1), 1-11.
Williams, T., Thomas, J. & Hodgson, D. (2006). Rethinking Project Management: Researching Actuality of Projects. International Journal of Project Management, 24 (8), 675-686.
Wong, Z. (2010). Human Factors in Project Management: Concepts, Tools and Techniques for Inspiring Teamwork and Motivation. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
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