the project management essay

the project management essay

The Importance of Effective Project Management in Achieving Organizational Success

1. Introduction to Project Management

In project organizations, where accomplishing a specialized function is dominant, emphasis shifts to rapidly ranking personnel for project success based on the ability to perform selected tasks to produce a product or a result, and incentives must be offered in all of the affected disciplines to accomplish the same mission. Since the stakeholders, namely the sponsor, participant members, performing the function, and interested parties, do have some control in its operation but their influence differs from one stakeholder to another, they all have an important role to play.

The duration of the operation of a project organization, relative to the operational functions of an organization, will depend on the relative emphasis society gives to the organization’s function as defined by its mission or goal and the character of the relationship between this function and the products or services it produces. Organizations accomplishing a greater number of their functions continuously, as is normally found in private and public service organizations, have a more behaviorally oriented personnel system with concerns for development and training.

Project organizations are a way of linking all the organizational specialties, and society has found it convenient to staff projects as a parallel task system to accomplish a specific portfolio of tasks to fulfill a unique mission or goal. In any innovation, we find that there is no relations officer, no purchasing personnel, no manufacturing department within the R&D unit. All these functions have to be performed by the project manager with periodic feedback as he progresses.

No organizational structure functions perfectly, and the developers of modern organizations are no exception. Seven of the factors which distinguish modern organizations from earlier forms, namely complexity, non-routine tasks, specialized skills, formal training, diminished responsibility for personnel decisions, desire for employee growth and development, and environmental uncertainty, also contribute to their difficulties.

2. Key Principles and Processes of Project Management

Defining the project is typically the first step in creating the project culture, structure, and environment that leads to successful project outcomes. The project definition primarily includes identifying the objectives of the project and the aims and benefits of the project. For future long-term success, a comprehensive and complete definition of the project should be established, including specific activities and functional responsibilities. The project itself forms the foundation for the dynamic interdependent activities that are managed and controlled by the project organization in order to deliver organizational results. Promptly creating, organizing, and positioning this project organization set up bar and institute a culture and goal of teamwork, cooperation, and communication, particularly between the organization and the project organization. Personality conflicts and misunderstandings are reduced, constructing a solid process environment which promotes safe, efficient, and quality work methods.

Project management has been referred to as a general management function that deals with and is responsible for the interrelated project processes of developing, planning, managing, testing, executing, and delivering the project in accordance with the predetermined long-term goals of the organization. It is considered an essential tool of competitive advantage. The utilization of project management principles and methods has the potential to improve the performance of project activities within an organization. However, project management principles continue to be underutilized by projects. Researchers have concluded that project management has the potential to be invaluable to project functions if approached from an aligned organizational perspective, yet essential components of the project system are often excluded. Safe and reliable performance of project activities facilitates company repeat and referral business and is crucial to the long-term profitability and success of an organization. However, company profitability is not achieved by producing high-quality project work alone. A company must also be run efficiently.

3. Challenges and Solutions in Project Management

Effective program management tools are becoming increasingly important. The pressures to get more from limited resources and capabilities, the growing complexity and number of business strategies, and the need to keep programs tested against schedules, expenditures, and returns all require major improvements in the systems of program management. Better program management can also be achieved by more carefully identifying, detailing, and managing programs at an institutional scale. Successful software companies adopt structural program management models, which makes some type of structured program management a requirement for software program success as well. To implement analytical methods in a program management setting, software development leaders require skills in other areas. They must be knowledgeable of strategic decision-making and have a set of quantitative tools that could help them in the program development life cycle stages.

4. The Role of Leadership in Successful Project Management

Brent Gleeson suggests that effective project leadership should work in the role of communicators in chief, as talent scouts, chief executive officers, and acting as diplomats for the organization. All the roles have the explicit benefit of uniting the team behind the project in a common goal and ensuring that the project is in compliance with the overall strategic direction of the organization, while ensuring that potential stumbling blocks to project success are minimized or alleviated. Gleeson’s conclusion reinforces the importance that an effective leadership/management model has in terms of overall project success.

As with all areas of management, an individual in a leadership role is ultimately responsible for the success of a given project. However, when focusing specifically on the management of a project or projects, the role of the leader is different. While a project manager is “in the weeds” of the project, pulling together various resources and ensuring that everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing while meeting the goals of the project, it is a leader that provides the vision and the direction, as well as organizational support necessary to ensure that a project meets its goals. This type of strategic leader is necessary for organizations to be successful with projects.

5. Case Studies and Best Practices in Project Management

The management of large investments and major acquisitions through modern project and portfolio management helps to ensure the successful realization of the investment objectives, whether through planning and execution ensuring cost, schedule, performance, and risk are optimized and serve to protect the interests of taxpayers, shareholders, customers, and organizations. Program management standards are key to enabling federal agencies to manage investments and secure the expected mission and financial results. Programs and projects are the vehicles through which change happens in organizations, and the members of the team responsible for the successful delivery of the results are the project managers that apply the principles, standards, and practices of their trade to the planning and execution of the work. Effective program and project managers are the leaders that communicate the directions, motivate actions, ensure the right collaboration, insert the organizational discipline into the effort, and manage the organizational interfaces and politics imperatively required for success. Consumer-driven results in government agencies do not happen in a vacuum; they are the result of effective leadership and relationships embodied in the project and program management activities.

To determine the best project management practices, the GAO examined PMI’s The Standard for Program Management (2006), The Standard for Portfolio Management (2006), and the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (2003). The GAO found that utilizing a broad range of good practices, or best practices, from project management standards, guidelines can help federal agencies meet the requirements of the Public Law and improve the management of IT acquisitions. Generally, the contents of the project management standards, guidelines, and models help to ensure that effective processes are followed, knowledge is shared, roles, responsibilities, and needed skills are understood, and governing processes manage scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, communications, human resources, procurements, and integration. These criteria are essential for managing successful IT projects. It is important that project and program managers have a solid understanding of the project management “best practices” available to them.