2012-02-MAN-435-OL009: Project Management
Written Assignment 1
1. Discuss the principal reasons why project management has become such a popular business tool in recent years.
Business has changed in the past 20 or so years. Products are being produced more rapidly and with the introduction of globalization competition has become more abundant. There is a need to become more customer focused but at the same time quicker to market while still reducing cost. Doing business the old way is just not cutting it anymore. Project management gives companies the ability to focus on many things at once without losing focus on their core business model. Processes become projects that have a start and finish and can be tracked and quantified
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More would be expected of me than just meeting quota. 3. Describe the basic elements of the project life cycle. Why is an understanding of the project life cycle relevant for understanding project management?
The project life cycle consists of the conceptualization phase, the planning phase, the execution phase, and the termination phase.
Understanding the project lifecycle is important because it is the base of all project management. You take one phase out and the project will fail. You cannot start a project without a good scope, or blueprint. The project lifecycle is set up so that you cannot move on to the next stage in the cycle without going through the previous stage. I also want to mention the termination phase. This is where you terminate the project and put together a document that explains the delays and fixes that helped the project come to fruition. 4. Compare and contrast the three organizational structures discussed in the text: functional, project, and matrix. Provide examples that show the difference between the three, including some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.
There are three main organizational structure types used in business today. They are functional, project and matrix. They each have their strong points and weaknesses. I will list the strengths and weaknesses of each while comparing them to each other.
The functional structure is based around having similar activities grouped into
Evaluate the importance of understanding the various stages of the project life cycle and its possible contributions to a project.
Project management is managing the work to develop and innovate or even change within an existing operation. There are five steps in this management: Initiating the project, Planning and controlling all activities to keep the project on schedule, executing every phase of the projects process, monitoring/ controlling reviewing and regulating the progress and performance of all phases of the project, Closing process this is where all processes are finalized and completed to officially close the project out.
This section will cover an analysis of the project management cycle, and the approaches and
2. (TCO H) What is the longest phase of the project life cycle? (Points : 5)
Discussion Question: The Importance of Project Management. Project management has become an important aspect of business in many companies. Projects are integrated with the strategic views of the corporation to ensure maximum benefits are achieved.
Evaluate the importance of understanding the various stages of the project life cycle and its possible contributions to a project.
Project management provides a strong foundation for developing the attributes needed to pursue high-level leadership roles, analytical positions, and many other areas within the business environment.
The nature and scope of a project is determined at the initiation stage. This involves analyzing the business needs, developing goals, budgets, tasks, deliverables, and the stakeholder analysis. The project planning stage determines the planning team, develops the scope, and identifies work breakdown structure and activities that will be needed to complete deliverables. The planning stage also estimates time and cost activities, develop schedule and risk plan, and gain formal approval for work to begin. The executing stage involves all processes used to meet the project requirement and involves managing people and resources. The process that entails the identification of potential problems and
1. Briefly describe some key events in the history of project management. What role does the Project Management Institute and other professional societies play in helping the profession?
3-9: It is depends on the situational and capability of the organization. The factors need to be considered by an organizations which can immediately reconstruct the organizational are, i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. 3-10: Since the organizations have different departments like engineering, planning, computer programming and construction. They have different life cycle methods for each department and independent of one another so functional organizational form is best. 3-11: The project organizational structure must be used while developing the product. We can effective utilization of product with that so there is no use of using organization structure after development. 3-12: This company has got many achievements without an organizational form. However organizational structure must for developing companies to reduce
Using project management offers a business a way for dealing with considerably lowered phase times. With businesses operating internationally projects that can have an effect on the company as a whole are not easy to manage without a proper line of attack. For this, project management would help cross functional teams to be more successful.
In its modern form, project management dates back to the early 1950s, although its roots go further back to the latter years of the 19th century. As businesses realised the benefits of organising work around projects - recognising the critical need to communicate and co-ordinate work across departments and professions - a defined method of project management emerged.
To ensure the project operating well and on time, the ways to evaluate and control are important. In current project management life cycle theory, three concepts are introduced to managers, which are used to evaluate the project operation.
The development process of any project has specific phases which are known as project life cycle. Usually each project has five phases which are named as: 1- Analysis 2- Coding or Development 3- Testing or Validation 4- Deployment and Integration, 5-Maintenance.
Prior to this course, I thought that in order to manage a project you need to be a project manager. However, this course changed my perspective on project management. As I continue to read the book, I realized that I actually manage many projects, and project management is not only limited to organizations. Throughout our lives, we manage many projects from planning a wedding to building a house, some of those projects may take few days and some may take years to complete. In addition, I also learned that there are no two projects that are alike, each project has it’s own unique elements that set it apart from other projects.