Business benefits of project management
Organizations whether in private, public, profit-making, or non-profit making find themselves undertaking different projects to accomplish some tasks; the process and the art of seeing the projects live to their expectations id called project management. Project management is a scientific move by a team designated with the task of implementation of a project; they to accomplish a certain task within a period, with some expected expenditure, expected outcome, and a work framework or schedule.
PRINCE2 method of project management gives the project management team some tasks that when undertaken effectively, the success of the project can be celebrated. In the PRINCE2 project management style, the following are the strategic and operational benefits that a business benefits from when a project is managed effectively:
- Resources, both human and physical are well-utilized and high levels of efficiency coupled with minimal wastage realized.
- Projects are complimented within or in time and no extra cost has been incurred.
- Quality is maintained high all along with the project.
- There are effective risk identification, assessment, management, and mitigation.
When the above is attained, then a business can proudly attain its corporate goals, objective, mission, and vision (Cleland and Ireland 23-45).
The accountability structures designed into the project plan
To have a well-managed project, there is a need to have a well-designated power distribution; in PRINCE2 management, power is exercised in four main levels of as senior user level (has the overall management task), project director, and a project manager (they plan and have the project documented), and project staff. All the ranks of leadership have some powers in them and the attainment of the project goals depends on how well they use their power for the good of the project. As an overall role, they are required to see the project succeed and meet the corporate requirements, for instance, if the project was needed for a certain period, it is their role to ensure that it has been accomplished within that time framework.
The following are the specific project manager’s role:
- Initiation: from the start of the project, the managers need to be involved in making initiation documents and procedures.
- Planning and development: they are responsible for planning within the project.
- Project implementation and execution: they are the people on the ground to see the project come to pass.
- Monitoring: they should ensure that everything is going according to plan.
- Closure: when everything is done, then they can close the project.
The nature of leadership and communication in project management
PRINCE2 method of project management contains some guidance, structures, and processes based on established good practice; according to the management approach, the task of seeing the project happen is vested in the management however, it appreciates that he can only attain this with the assistance of project staffs. With that light in mind, the most effective leadership approach to a project is the scientific leadership approach; an approach that has three levels of leadership as, embracing democracy, have some elements of autocracy, and use information and technology tools to come up with quality, effective, and acceptable decisions.
When the project is managed effectively, the following are the roles of a project team:
- Utilizing the available resources effectively.
- Advising and giving their views to supervisors and project managers on what they feel is best about the project.
- Driving the project to the final destination, they have a sense of purpose and works to its fulfillment.
- Activity co-ordination (Cleland and Ireland 23-45).
The contents and purpose of the Project Initiation Document
The Project Initiation Document (PID) is a management document that offers the overall project tools, skills, expectations, and schedules. The blueprint should be followed or improved at an ideal project management program. When project managers are on the ground and seeing the project progress, they need to gauge the expectations, and the outcomes of the project, Project Initiation Document (PID) is the piece of material that they use to ensure that the project is run in an effective and effective manner.
It contains the following information’s:
- The expected costs per process and the overall cost, it also documents the benefits that the company will get with the completion of the process.
- It contains the objectives, aims, and the general expectation of the project.
- It has documentation of the resource schedule, resources include time, human capital, physical and information.
- It contains the work schedules deliverables in every process.
The documents have the initial mind and the initial setting that the managers and initiators of the project had; with the documentation, managers on the ground are able to monitor and control the processes to ensure that the project will be attained to meet the corporate mind setting and thinking. The documents keep the project managers on their toes to see the project conducted and completed in time using the available and allocated resources.
PRINCE2 as a method of Project Management
PRINCE2 method of project management is one of the latest methods where it emphasizes the need to recognize the dependency that different processes have; the argument of the method is that to attain project goals and objectives, the project needs to be managed as a unified whole and no separation of tasks.
Projects are believed to be made of interdependent phases and processes according to Prience2, the different phases should be managed together while those that are mutually exclusive are initiated at different times to enhance the maximum utility of the company’s resources. When managing a portfolio, management should be open to consider and note changes brought about by varying factors affecting the business. A portfolio is faced with uncertainties, risks, and changes in dynamic opportunities. Being openly minded is a virtue in project management that assists a manager to make strategic and responsive decisions based on reports from periodical reviews, the performance of contrasting and interdependent projects.
Another strength that comes with prince2 management skills is the division of labor and human resources management; according to the method, the attainment of corporate goals is only attained when the team members are well managed and controlled, the method mandates managers to have effective policies that improve their working conditions and motivate their human capital (Cleland and Ireland 23-45)
A method for the assessment of risks to the success of a project
Projects are faced with some risks in course of their implementation, risk can occur at any one point in the project so project managers should be robust to keep the project running effectively at every stage. On the other hand, the managers should understand that risk in one area is likely to translate to risk in another area, thus the best approach to the management of project risk is to continuously appraise, monitor, and control processes.
When doing this, managers are assisted by project initiation documents; in case the risk was with the documents, the deliverable of the project can get the management to the drawing board to come up with another document or make adjustments in the documents. Risks can be interpolated as low or high risks; in the modern computerized world, there is the use of computers to manage risk; for example, the use of 2×2 charts with High and Low assessments for each dimension (axis). The charts assist managers to see the situation on a single frame or piece of work so that they can come up with the right approach to manage risk.
When managing risks, the most important method is to ensure that the root cause of the risk has been known; what mostly is seen on the ground as the difference between the expected and the outcome are the symptoms that there is a problem somewhere. Proper risk management approaches should ensure that they find the underlying cause of the matter and make adjustments as required; the use of information technology is highly recommended (Cleland and Ireland 23-45).
The wider project management structures in a typical organization
In the PRINCE2 method of project management, power can be felt at four main levels, senior, project leader, project directors, and project staffs; in all the leadership levels, the managers have some powers they have to exercise for the general good of the project. Senior managers work as a team; they have the following role and responsibilities:
- Allocation of resources (human resources, capital, physical and information) in an optimal manner so that they can have an effectively managed project.
- Develop the spirit of teamwork among the staff and ensure that personnel issues are addressed effectively. Personnel see the project succeed so when well managed, the project is more likely to succeeds.
- Manage risk in the project and make the documentation to their seniors with some advice that can improve the derivable of the project; when things are going okay, they have the responsibility of reporting to the management on the progress of the project.
- They offer guidance, mentorship, training, coaching, and sometimes counseling to their human capital.
All the roles and responsibilities of senior managers of a project are to ensure that the project operated according to the plan; they ensure that resources are effectively allocated to facilitate the completion of the project successfully within the required timeframe and cost (Cleland and Ireland 23-45)
Works Cited
Cleland, D. and Ireland, R. Project management: strategic design and implementation. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. Print.