project management essay examples

project management essay examples

The Importance of Project Management: A Comprehensive Analysis Through Essay Examples

1. Introduction to Project Management

All projects will have different specific goals and objectives. This makes it very hard to make a single, precise definition of a project. Each project should be considered on individual merits and case principles, but we recognize that projects have much in common, and we will try to outline some of the familiar features of what we mean by a project. These features are often useful as a checklist to determine if what you are analyzing meets the criteria of a project.

The basic elements of project management are usually not difficult. They are more or less the same for any project. These basic elements are called project management. In simple terms, these are methods of organizing, planning, and controlling resources and activities during project execution, usually concerned with task scheduling, budgeting, planning, collaboration, and problem-solving activities to achieve these common goals.

Project management is also a developing technical and social concept and discipline using the concept of the project cycle, and which strives to obtain a “common-sense” approach to the management of technical assistance projects and development cooperation as a whole. In connection with other disciplines, it has long been used in the complex processes of industrial projects, but its use in the simpler task of technical cooperation projects is a fairly recent one.

Project management is often defined as the process of managing certain important tasks, events, and resources over specific periods of time in order to achieve particular goals. Dictionary definitions aside, project management is many things to many people. There’s no one right definition or definition. That’s part of the excitement and power of project management.

2. Key Concepts and Principles of Project Management

Project management has experienced rapid growth in recent years, mainly due to the benefits in financial performance and competitive advantage. This essay aims to define the available theoretical frameworks that are still rare and dispersed in literature, as well as provide insights about project management’s role in knowledge creation. The concept of project management is dependent on notions of time, interdisciplinarity, complexity, human action, risk, relationship, and innovation, among others. The results indicate the prevalence of generic approaches to project management, using concepts based on linear models of the life cycle to control outcomes. Several dilemmas arise, such as flexibility versus standardization, processes versus a broader view, and operational efficiency versus project strategy.

3. Benefits and Challenges of Project Management

1.2. Challenges of Project Management Nowadays, managers are pressured with the implementation of great ideas and plans, but many fail due to limited resources to implement those. The continuous attempt to improve cost management at the initial planning stages is key to success in this representative challenge in the management of business projects, a very complex activity. Additionally, organizations face the challenge of making two or more projects function simultaneously, with some resource limitation, stimulating continuous improvements in planning techniques of company programs. The effective management of projects is conditioned by the proper allocation of resources. These resources are not uniform or portable over time, so successful planning and control of projects require smart methodologies that are easy to apply. Furthermore, companies recognize that they need to harmonize project management processes with the strategic goals of the organization, to add greater benefits in terms of quality with results. Their difficulties are also related to the management of internal and external customer requirements, the high dynamism of technology, the variety of available methodologies, the slowness of the action of the power of information, and the little administrative support.

1.1. Benefits of Project Management There are several reasons to manage projects effectively by institutions, aside from mere budget consciousness. In fact, it can bring a number of benefits to a company, such as avoiding inefficient projects and ensuring that the improvements will add value to the business. Moreover, organizations can develop a good reputation for delivering successful outcomes and increase the satisfaction of stakeholders. The focus is also to increase the success rates of projects, align a body of knowledge with standardized practices that are continuously followed and protected. The main benefit, however, is through the creation of value. Value, through which the project practitioner fulfills its mission and achieves success, is the ultimate goal of the project management discipline.

4. Case Studies and Examples of Successful Project Management Practices

4.2 Importance of Methodology and Worksheet for Case Study Projects. 1. Diagnosis of the current state. This diagnosis is the second part of the BPR Project pyramid, and is engaged in studying the company, its environment and the processes, involving internally the target company, the BPR Project Steering Committee, the BPR Project team and data processing workers at the company. This diagnosis should begin by identifying the target company’s strategic objectives as well as the best Business Process to achieve these objectives through strategy. After this definition, upon completion of the diagnosis of the current situation, it presents on the worksheet a description of the size, complexity and behavior of the current situation. The current state diagnosis contemplates five associated diagnosis dimensions: 1. Business projects, business units, and process workflows that support business units. 2. Information flows that support process workflow. 3. The company’s general performance, related to its class and its information systems. 4. The company’s results, as well, the results obtained from multiple activities. 5. Expectations. The objectives of the design are beyond the questions detailed in the current situation. The diagnosis of the current state of their company identifies the business projects, the workflow that supports these agreements between the business projects and their respective workflow. It defines the set of information flows that support these transactions, within and outside the company. This diagnosis can also establish the performance of the company overall and the information systems, associated with business projects, workflow, and information flows and supporting information systems. The diagnosis of the existing BPM can define the company’s overall performance, associated with their business, and processes.

6. The lack of time to review the feasibility analysis. A meeting of the steering committee will be held every 15 days, about the project feasibility analysis, in order to meet the project’s deadlines, enabling a good assessment of the progress of the activities. The analysis process should take an average of 25 workdays before the approval and initiation of the project.

5. The lack of a formal project “feasibility”. This problem is found predominantly in large companies that cannot, or will not, clearly define the specific BPR projects that should be developed.

4.1 General Electric Commerce Business Systems Case Study. The General Electric Corporation had a sale, known as EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). To implement this system, which will serve about 5,000 companies and its suppliers and customers, such as General Motors, Martin Marietta, IBM, Du Pont and others, EDS (Electronic Data Systems) is responsible for the system implementation and technical support. Data acquisition and communication between the mainframes is already being done by Vancom, which leases installing and maintaining communication equipment.

5. Conclusion and Future Trends in Project Management

It is proposed in this work to encompass these main themes to understand the importance of the project management discipline for organizations, regardless of its segment. In addition, these concepts should be associated with the importance of the organization’s culture to the practice of project management and its formalization within strategic planning. The guidelines developed for both literature and empirical studies are presented from these issues, from the compilation of international evaluations regarding the relationship of the proposed instruments and its relationship with the culture and strategic planning of organizations are derived. The main research methods employed, subject of the empirical studies, are the main limitations and future trends for the development of the research agenda.

In the last 60 years, the discipline of project management has evolved in an articulated and organized fashion. As a knowledge area, it has a quarter of a century in which the studies in context approached its conceptual and practical development in an apparent irrelevance or adoption of empirical studies and fragile theoretical bases. The consequences of these studies are still being assimilated both by the practitioners and by the generated academic production. The phase of joint establishment of the knowledge areas and the production of national intellectual capital in organizations is one of the characteristics that identify the current stage of maturity of the discipline in the country. These two aspects are in constant intersection with the growth of the importance of these forms of organization and with the country’s own industrialization.