Category: Project Management

You are the senior director of information technology at Endothon Inc. (Endothon

You are the senior director of information technology at Endothon Inc. (Endothon), a U.S.-based company located in Atlanta, Georgia. Your company makes aircraft seats and accessories for private and small commercial aircraft. You have five manufacturing plants in the United States. Your company has recently expanded into western Europe due to long-term contracts with Airbus, Dassault, and Bombardier in France and the United Kingdom. This newly acquired business in western Europe required the company to purchase three manufacturing plants in western Europe. Also, you currently have long-term contracts with Boeing, Cessna, and Grumman in the United States.
The CEO and the board of directors at Endothon have indicated they want a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for their company, and they would like it to be compatible with their customers’ systems. All of Endothon’s customers have Systems, Applications, & Products in Data Processing (SAP) provide their ERP systems. They want the ERP to be configured and implemented in the next 10 months. Realizing this is an aggressive schedule, they have authorized you to outsource the development of the ERP system to either an inshore or offshore company to contract for the necessary resources to accomplish this project. Your team will be involved in this endeavor so that they will eventually learn the system. However, the initial configuration, implementation, maintenance, and support will have to be serviced by your selected vendor and transitioned to your team two years after initial implementation. As the senior director, you have already determined that the cost to implement this project with a domestic contractor or within the company is prohibitive. To achieve the aggressive timeline and the budget, you must find a lower-cost resource capability offshore. You have issued a request for proposal (RFP) and have gone through a selection process to the point that you now have the final two competing vendors. The budget for this project is $10,000,000.
The SAP ERP system you are going to be implementing will have a number of modules that represent core business processes and areas. You will focus on three major modules within the SAP ERP system:
1. Financial Accounting and Controlling (FICO) Module: This includes procurement and payments for international contracts. It also includes the recording of financial transactions and the assurance of the correct payments for the correct performance. Transfer pricing (monetary exchange rates), tracking, and posting are continually managed by this system.
2. Human Resources Management System (HRMS) Module: All personnel data, including personal information, work history, medical records, training history, salary information, and organizational placement are contained in this system.
3. Sales and Distribution (SD) Module: The eight manufacturing plants are automated and tracked through this module. This includes the proprietary designs and components of the various products. Product design information is transmitted in encrypted form from the headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, to the various plants on a continual basis. This includes customer data, shipping and receiving information, and inventory loads.
As the senior director of information technology at Endothon, you are tasked with selecting a vendor based on these two final proposals and then suggesting modifications to the winning vendor’s proposal to align to the company’s needs.

Write a position paper on the approach and process of diagnosing an organization

Write a position paper on the approach and process of diagnosing an organization for change. What is involved with effective diagnosis? How does this work integrate with the project management discipline? What is the value of an effective diagnosis? Your paper should be written in APA style, 4-6 pages, and include at least five professional references beyond course resources.

Project management is an organized approach to deliver solutions within a certai

Project management is an organized approach to deliver solutions within a certain time and cost. A project is successful when all aspects are well defined.
Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:
Think of a project you have worked on in the past. Based on the project, discuss the following:
Any 2 characteristics that made the project a project and not an operation
Any 2 factors that led to the success of your project
Any 2 factors that may have detracted from your progress or final outcome

Project Management Competencies

Abstract

Every project is unique in its process system, in a broader aspect there is no fundamental error in construction projects, however, most of the projects deviate from the time span or the cost-effectiveness and faces many unusual challenges based on area, circumstances, climate, socio-economic altercations or environmental situations(Hubbard, 1990). The range of complexity of a construction project cannot be realised just by a practical understanding of the nature of projects or by mere academical approach. This is the venue of project management where the success is determined by codifying the capability and skills of the project Management division.

Introduction

This review paper assesses the main complexity in the workflow of a project and the key factors needed to overcome the complex, ambiguous and uncertain nature of construction projects(Chan, Scott and Chan, 2004). Here the interdependencies of the organisation, the project management office, and the project managers, their conduct, and active interference in the management of a project is described on rational grounds using key performance indicators and their core competencies in implementing a project successfully are described. Project Management competency is not a single entity, but a configured outcome of Organisational, Project management office, and Project manager competencies (Hamel, 1994) alongside drive the success of the project.

Competencies in the construction industry

a. Organisational Competency

The competency of project management is directly dependent on the culture and structure of the organisation and its vitality in process and innovation. This achievement in the construction industry depends on the management of resources of the corporate industry, its allocation, and the nature of (Jaselskis and Ashley, 1991). A company might be engaged in many projects at the same time, over different geographical areas and by different self-governing project leaders at their helm. Hence, every project depends on the policy and decision making of the company, moreover the success of the projects is fundamentally influenced by the appropriate management techniques of the company itself (Munns AK, Bjeirmi BF). The corporate strengths can be attributed to three main criteria’s which are resources and capabilities, strategic approaches and relationship with parties(Chan, Scott and Chan, 2004).

Resources and capabilities are an assemblage of few tangible and intangible factors(Barney, 1991), Financial competency, technological competency, leadership, experience, Image of the company, research and development, innovative competency: Strategic decisions of a company mean, the attitude and response of the organisation, its Project Management Office, project managers, and staff members in a work atmosphere. Differentiation, potential market selection competence, strategies in project management, investment strategies, management strategies as an Organisation (Warszawski, 1996).

For a construction company, the strength of the relationship with major social factors is too relevant that decides the project management capabilities and seamless flow of projects to success. These major factors that can affect a construction project are relationships with Clients, trade unions, and with the government (Pmi, 2002). This can be portrayed with the structural equation modeling which influences a construction project fig 1(Tabri and Elliott, 2012).

Competencies of the Project Management Office(PMO)

The study interprets nine characteristic competencies that are identified as relevant for the success of a construction project(Project Management Institute, 2008). Apart from the success factors such as communication, feedback, control, project organisation, planning, scheduling and management experience, project management competencies are possible project success factors(Chua, Kog and Loh, 1999).

Schedule management: As by the name, it essentially means the time span of the project. The processes, activities, estimation, planning, development and control. A project manager in charge must be aware of the potential delays and conflicts that might occur on course(Project Management Institute, 2008).

Cost management. A consistent cost effectiveness is necessary for the investment on the project and it basically involves planning, estimating, budgeting and controlling the project costs.

Quality Management: This includes quality planning, quality assurance and quality control. The term total quality management (TQM) refers to the successful management of the construction projects. This happens when a firm is adaptive to its quality culture and frequently evaluating the principles of the company itself.

Human resource management: In construction industry manpower is the prime resource and success is determined by the coordination and competency of the people in this industry. The main objective of the human resource management is to manage and categorise the work force.

Risk Management: Risk features as complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty in construction industry. The main purpose of a project manager is to identify the risk chances in advance and maintain the quality, productivity, budget, and performance. These risks can be transferred, minimised or shared(Raz, Shenhar and Dvir, 2002).

Supply chain management: According to public sector construction firms in UK, including the Latham report and the Egan report underline the necessity of improving the supply chain. It is the flow of materials and information from the owner, consultant, contractor, subcontractor and suppliers in the construction sector. The smooth communication between the elements of the supply chain prioritises the success of projects.

Claims management: In the construction industry mainly refers to the terms and agreements between clients, consultants, owners, contractors and other contributors. There will be contracts and terms of agreement which need to be vivid and on understanding terms(Project Management Institute, 2008)

Knowledge competency: Here the business improvement means more client satisfaction which can be obtained by innovation and strategical approaches towards a project. The company need to be capable to rise to the standards of the best practices

Health and safety management: It is a very important project management competency where a safe working environment is created with specifications and guidelines to follow and it also means the training of the workers and staff with the up-to-date technologies (Ringen, Seegal and Englund, 1995).

Competencies and skills of a project manager

Projects are the foundations of the construction business and the project manager plays as a tool to operate the projects using strategies and emerging techniques with adaptive competencies and skills as an individual (Munns and Bjeirmi, 1996). Fundamentally, the success of a construction project depends on the key knowledge, skills and competencies of the project managers (Edum-Fotwe and McCaffer, 2000). Along with the Organisation and PMO competencies the PM’s key skills are highly valuable for the success of projects in construction.

A credent Mapping of project Infrastructure

While explaining the competencies of a construction project management, it is impossible to ignore the state of world and its nature of ambiguity, complexity and uncertainty. Managing projects means the project team must identify various aspects. Initially, it must clear the adequacy and ambiguity or complexity moreover, the project team should consider the true context of transition mapping. Also, the payoff effects on a particular action can be examined with experience (Sobek, Ward and Liker, 1999). The strategies of project management are relevant in the successful completion of a project.

Conclusion

The review entitles the literary aspects towards the construction project management competencies. The success factor of every project is directly dependent on the key competent nature of the company, it’s management of projects and the capabilities of the project managers. While explaining the lifecycle of a project that starts with initiation, then planning, designing, execution, monitoring, and ends with closing, the necessity of a project management system for the success of projects and its effectiveness is clearly stated in this review. To understand the core competencies of the project management a critical mapping of the project infrastructure is explained with the fundamental strategies relevant in a project lifecycle. Here, the core competencies of the Organisation, Projects, and Project managers are elaborated with key performance factors and derived innate for the success competency.

Tools For Project Management

Project management includes with compelling plans and deliberately association of work. It incorporates characterizing the project destinations, making calendars and doling out undertakings, so as to achieve an effective objective.

Gantt chart

From a Gantt chart, you can plainly perceive what the sub tasks are and when each tasks starts and closures. Introducing a visual outline of the project, you can without much of a stretch track the advancement by observing what ought to occur at any phase in the project. Gantt chart can help in arranging and overseeing projects by breaking an enormous undertaking into a progression of littler errands in a sorted out manner. Each assignment has a normal time span which is introduced by a level bar whose left end demonstrates the starting date of the errand and whose correct end shows the culmination date of the task. Tasks may run successively, in equal or covering. During the procedure, significant occasions can be featured as ‘Milestone’ which is set apart by a little precious stone shape.

PERT chart

PERT stands for project evaluation and review technique. It’s an essential task the board device utilized for arranging and planning whole undertakings and following the usage stage. PERT chart can likewise show task division, time assignment, and beginning and closure dates. Dissimilar to Gantt chart who uses bars to speak to tasks, PERT outline shows data as a system model that utilizations boxes to speak to errands and bolts to introduce conditions between assignments. The format of a PERT chart makes the connections between exercises simpler to see than with Gantt chart. Be that as it may, the detriment is it very well may be hard to follow when there are numerous mind boggling conditions and assignments.

WBS

WBS, otherwise called work break down structure, is a typical task the executives instrument pictures the extent of work by breaking an undertaking into singular parts that can be adequately planned. The WBS is a tree style structure with the general assignment on the top; trailed by venture areas and further into singular errands. WBS models are like a flowchart that has its segments connected coherently. The segments might be clarified in content, or in boxes.

Requirements for a project?

Requirement gathering process is a process which includes recognizing all the resources, tools, and techniques you need to guarantee you and your group can accomplish the project deliverables. Some of them are described below:

Identifying all of the project stakeholders

Stakeholders can either have an effect on the result of an extend or be affected by the undertaking. The first step in requirements gathering is to decide the entirety of the potential stakeholders through a stakeholder analysis. When they are totally distinguished, you should meet with them to examine the project, their potential commitments or the effect.

Identifying and utilizing the necessary tools

These can be simple tools such as project management, software and other documents, storage, and collaboration tools. They are needed to capture, analyze, prioritize requirements, stakeholders, and the link back to project goals and deliverables.

Using the most relevant techniques

Once we know which are the essential stakeholders, recognize how you are going to precisely accumulate the fundamental business data expected to meet project goals. Some of the ideas would be interviewing stakeholders, brainstorming, questionnaires etc.

Finally, Conducting requirements gathering

Since you have recognized the ideal individuals and the best tools and techniques the time has come to conduct requirements gathering and analysis. It isn’t sufficient to simply accumulate information: you should have the option to interpret and dissect the data. Once you have recognized and broke down the entirety of the prerequisites, try to affirm your discoveries with topic specialists and the customer to guarantee everything is precise and that nothing has gotten lost in an outright flood. This is basic, as the accomplishment of the tasks, achievements, and the expectations will rely upon the precision of this data.

Project scope

A project scope is the number one thing to write in a project planning. Scope helps to understand the problem and the work that must be done. It is limited depiction of the information and control, work, execution, requirements, interfaces and unwavering quality. Sufficient to decide venture achievability and make an underlying plan.

Some of the Scoping Techniques are:

• FAST (Facilitated Application Specification Technique),
• QFD (Quality Function Deployment),
• Use-Cases Scope is influenced by:
• Customers’ needs
• Business context
• Project boundaries
• Customers’ motivation
• Likely ways for change

Monitoring and control of the risks

Risk is a vulnerability that can have a negative or beneficial outcome on meeting venture destinations. Risk management is an investment that should be considered in a project. Risk can be monitored in several way such as indentifying, analyzing, tracking etc. Some of them are described below:

• Identifying risks. It is important to identify the risk first in order to prevent it from damaging the project. Some tools and techniques to identify the risk are:
• Brainstorming
• The Delphi Technique
• Interviewing
• SWOT analysis
• The Risk Register. It contains the consequences of different risk management processes that is frequently shown in a table or spreadsheet position.
• Calculating risk factors. Numbers that speak to the general danger of explicit occasions dependent on their likelihood of happening and the results to the venture in the event that they do happen are known as risk factors. Understanding what potential occasions may damage or improve a specific project.

Controlling

Even if there are possible risk, there are ways it can be minimized or controlled. Some of them are as follows:

• Risk utility. It is the measure of satisfaction or pleasure got from a potential result.
• Planning and implementing Risk Responses.
• Performing Qualitative and quantitative Risk Analysis. It includes tool and techniques to Assess the likelihood and impact of identified risks to determine their magnitude and priority such as:
• Probability/impact matrixes

References

1. https://www.pmworld360.com/blog/2018/07/03/4-steps-to-effective-project-requirements-gathering/

Project Management Peculiarities

Introduction

Project Summary

Japher Motors (JM) is a widely implemented model for managing a company’s interaction with customers, Booking , and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes-principally booking and sales activities, customer services, and payment support.

Today’s organizations must manage customer interactions across multiple communications channels-including the Web, call centers, field sales, and dealers partner networks.

The Japher Motors- User Management and consist of functions like Organizational Management, Customer Management, and Inventory Management with Administrator..

Purpose

Our purpose is to build user friendly system, to overcome the most of the problems occurring in the manual system by computerizing the existing system which can allow customer complete details and inventory and booking ticket information.

The purpose of this software is to provide faster retrieval of the confirmation. After computerizing the system, the user of the system can finish his/her work in least amount of time and efforts.

Activities Of Proposed System

• Generating the Booking maintenance.
• Maintaining customer details properly.
• Maintain scheduling of Booking.
• Generate the complaint of the Customer and provide the support
• Payment Process

Objectives

The company is facing problems with the existing system as mentioned in detailed description of the problem. So there is a need for developing a new system. The system revolves around customer as the main entity. Hence, the foremost objective of the system is to satisfy the needs of customers.

Following are other related company’s objectives:

• a) To facilitate improved and fast communication with customer.
• b) To maintain consistent customer base.
• c) Fast and efficient problem solving of customer through complaint and feedback mechanism.
• d) Access to customer account history, Booking information, and customer information at all touch points.
• e) To lower communication and servicing expenses.
• f) To cross sell products more effectively.
• g) To increase sales as a result of enhanced system that ensures customer satisfaction.
• h) Inventory Management

Project Management

Project Planning

Project Initiation include many goals, proposal include legal concerns, commercial arrangements, and intellectual property rights. Projects initiation start from analysis of the system, First System Analysis informs the approach the organization for the new concepts which is accepted by the organization.

First we compare the Propose system with the readymade software which is available in market. In comparison price is compare with development expenses, staff training, operational feasibility etc. The proposal for the second part, which includes the detailed cost estimate, is given after the first part is over. A general rate for manpower might be agreed on at the start. Which the first part is over and detailed requirements are available, a fixed price bid is given for the development part.

Project Development Approach and Justification

We are following spiral model for developing our system.

Spiral model combines the advantages of top-down and bottom-up concepts. Hence, we are using this model due to its following reasons:

• Our system needs continuous development. We will describe the characteristics with high priority first and then develop a prototype based on these. This prototype will be tested and desired changes will be made in the new system. This continual and steady approach will minimize the risks or failure associated with the change in the system.
• We will be developing the system in small segments that will make it easier to do cost calculations.
• The client will be involved in the development of each segment and retains control over the direction and implementation of the system.
• The client’s knowledge of the project grows as the project grows, so that they can interface effectively with the system.

Spiral Model

Milestones and Deliverables

Milestones:

When planning for the project series of milestones established. These milestones are end-point for software activity. It may be in form of report.

Some milestones which occurred in my project are discussed in below.

• System requirements Study: In this milestone user requirement for system, like software requirements, hardware requirements and system’s functional and non functional requirements are decided.
• Architecture design: In this milestone design for software, its architecture design and also it graphical user interface also generated.
• Coding: In this milestone, the coding of the system is delivered that is the system is now partially ready to be delivered.

Deliverable Name Description Delivery

Project Synopsis This document gives an overview about the system of Content Management System and its features. 1 Week

Software Requirements Specification The SRS specifies the system’s users and their characteristics, functional and non-functional requirements of the system.

Deliverables

• Fact gathering
• Generate flow
• Create database with proper constrain.
• Design forms with the help of css.
• Apply validation with code.
• Testing with proper data entry.

Risk Management

Software is a difficult undertaking. Lots of things can go wrong, and frankly, many often do. It’s for this reason that being prepared, understanding the risks and taking proactive measures to avoid or manage them is a key element of good software project management. Once the information is established, these are ranked by probability and impact.

An important task in this project is managing the risk which comes across during the development of project.

There are some important techniques in this Risk management:

• Risk identification
• Risk analysis
• Risk planning

Risk Identification

It is a systematic attempt to specify threats to the project plan. By identifying known and predictable risks, we take first towards avoiding them when possible and controlling them when necessary.

I had considered the following type of risks to identify the risks in proper manner:

Risk Type Description

Project risk It can threaten project plan i.e. if project risk becomes real it is likely that project schedule, personnel and requirement problems can have their impact on a software project.

Technical risk It can threaten the quality and timeliness of the software to be engineered. If it becomes a reality, implementation may become difficult or impossible.

Business risk It can threaten the viability of the software to be built. A business risk often jeopardizes the project.

Risk Identification

Technical Risk

This risk is derived from the software and hardware which is used in this project. If after some time these technologies fail against new technology, then this project may be fail.

We have listed out the minimum hardware requirements for the system but as new configurations are available providing better reliability and better performance, the system made in technology with older configurations may not be much in demand.

Tools Risk

Tools which are used for developing this project must be available at client side. If tools are not available at client side then there may be risk of project failure.

For project this risk has very little importance as the tools used in our project are widely popular and easily available.

Requirement Risk

Requirements which are derived from customer must be same. If requirements change after some phase of project development, there may be risk of project failure.

References

1. Mechanic, D., 2012. Seizing opportunities under the Affordable Care Act for transforming the mental and behavioral health system. Health Affairs, 31(2), pp.376-382.
2. Kampas, S.R., Tarkowski, A.R., Portell, C.M. and Bhatti, N., Accenture Global Services Ltd, 2016. System and method for cloud enterprise services. U.S. Patent 9,235,442.
3. System Analysis & Design, 4th edition, Alan Dennis
4. Object Oriented Analysis and Design with UML Patterns, Dr . Shivani Joshi

Agile Project Management And PMBOK

Summary

Project management involves planning and organizing the resources of a company to move towards the completion of a specific task, event or task. Project management processes can be divided into five groups: initiating, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing. Project management knowledge is based on 10 areas: integration, scope, time, cost, quality, procurement, HR, communication, risk management, and partnership management. Also, Project management sets a clear direction determined by the goals, resources, and timing of each project. (Atkinson, R. 1999). There are several processes by which a project team chooses to organize a project. Therefore, these processes are called project management methods. The methods used in project management can help to determine the scope of a project, time frames, available resources when a project is delivered. Depending on the scope and requirements of your project, different methods of project management can be used. If some methods worked on one project does not mean that it works in another project. Each method and framework is suitable for different types of projects. Since there are several types of projects, there are various types of methods. Each method and structure have its own advantages and disadvantages. Some are better for business, others for small self-directed teams. Some programs are for software developers, while others are for other sections. The most commonly used methods of project management are Agile methodology, Waterfall methodology, Scrum methodology. (Palmquist, M. S., et al. 2013).

Introduction

In order to properly follow the methods in the agile project “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)” Third Edition is used. Firstly, we discuss the different methods of project management. Then, we identify project lifecycle and implementation followed By PMBoK in the agile project. After that, differences between the methods are clearly explained.

1. Agile methodology: The agile project management process is a value-based project management method that enables you to process projects in small cycles. Agile planning methods are complemented during the work period from the design phase to test and quality control, dividing the project into smaller parts. These periods are often called sprints. Sprints are usually short and can last for days or weeks, usually 2-4 weeks. Agile methods allow teams to release completed parts. This ongoing introductory program will allow the team to demonstrate that these disciplines are successful and fix errors quickly.
2. Waterfall methodology: The waterfall methodology is a traditional approach to project management and is commonly used in the construction sectors. Waterfall” is an approach to project management where a project is completed at each stage and gradually shifts to a final consumer release. Many experts believe that this was the first model adopted in software engineering. The model adopts a linear approach to project management in which the project is divided in sequence with the start of a stage that depends on the completion of the first phase.
3. .Scrum methodology: The Scrum Phase is a management framework for product development, each employing 7 people using one or more cross-functional self-organizing teams. Scrum is a metaphor that reflects how everyone must work to complete a project. It provides a set of roles, meetings, rules, and deliverables. Scrum uses fixed-length iterations called sprints. Sprints should be less than 30 days and should be shortened if possible. (Top project management methods)

Analysis

This report also describes that agile projects continuously follow the project lifecycle and process as described in the PMBoK Guide.

Project life cycle: The project lifecycle describes the beginning and end of the project, including all the middle tasks. All stages within the life cycle communicate and are connected by the results they produce. The PMBOK® guide describes its sequence as beginning with an initial phase, followed by a series of intermediate phases and ending with a final phase.

Many software project managers started to associate the waterfall model with the process described in the PMBoK Guide. (PMI, 2004). In traditional software development methods, these phases of the project life cycle usually follow the waterfall method. The waterfall model is a model of continuous development. The requirements must be clarified before proceeding to the next design phase. When the code is fully ready, the test runs. Each product or activity is completed before proceeding. Each phase of development moves in a continuous manner without duplication. Schedule each phase for tasks to be completed in a timely manner. Documentation and testing are done at the end of each step to help maintain the quality of the project. (Flahiff, J. 2011).

All tasks in a waterfall project are gathered by activity type and each project follows the same steps:

System requirement—— software requirement—- Analysis—–program design—–coding———testing———-operations

The waterfall method describes the process of analysis, design, coding, testing, and deployment, all of which were performed as part of the project. (project management institute, 2004)

Waterfall projects must carry out operations in a particular order, and a process cannot be initiated until the completion of the previous project. Therefore, waterfall project planning is the most important: If you do not plan properly, one phase will be delayed, and every subsequent phase will be forced, thus the entire project will be put on a deadline. Waterfall project management is rooted in non-software software industries, such as manufacturing and construction. where the system is created by necessity. In these areas, the project phases must be sequenced. (Sliger, M. 2008).

The waterfall is always mentioned as the opposite of agile. However, waterfall projects face severe difficulties in dealing with the changes, while agile plans appreciate these changes. The main difference between the cascade method and the agile method is that in the waterfall method the clients are involved at the beginning of the project, and then their involvement drops. In an agile model, the user is constantly engaged. (Balaji, S., & Murugaiyan, M. S. 2012). In a dynamic environment like Dodd’s, the traditional world is always struggling for supply as it always has specific needs and preferences in place. But Agile accepts this because of his constant preparation to develop world needs and priorities. Sometimes lost in the traditional/agile world debate is the fact that both groups have the same goal-providing products in a predictable, efficient and responsive way is. (Palmquist, M. S., et al. 2013). Both worlds define the same ‘type’ of things and assemble, analyze, design, code, test, release, maintain and retire. This is how to do these different things. Both traditional and agile worlds operate on the same basic program building blocks (scope, cost, schedule, performance). In its simplest form, the traditional world can be pre-scoped (via requirements) and then change costs, schedules, and performance. Again, in simplest terms, Agile World can pre-determine cost, schedule, and performance and change the scope. We will examine the applicability of agile methods in various design and development dimensions to analyze the suitability of agile methods in large systems. (Rao, K. N., Naidu, G. K., & Chakka, P. 2011).

Agile development is based on the idea of step-by-step and repeated development, which is often reviewed during the developmental life stages. It repeatedly improves software that can replace a solution using consumer analytics. In agile development, traditional lifestyles are called ‘increments’ or ‘repetitions’ in smaller sections, rather than the single largest process model applied to the traditional SDLC, in which all these increments touch on each of the conventional stages of growth. According to the Agile Manifesto, the major agile factors include the following four: Early customer involvement, Iterative development, Self-organizing teams, and Adaptation to change. (Leau, Y. B., et al. 2012).

The life cycle of an agile project involves sequential project phases, called repetitions, that has a deliverable work code in each iteration. However, all processes running one by one (analysis, design, code, test) to produce an increment of code that executed simultaneously in agile projects.

In the early phase of agile projects, there is a preparation process that is part of the first iteration. The agile software development lifecycle has many iterations, and each follows its own workflow. Middle phases in agile projects are the releases and/or iterations where extra features are distributed in the form of working code. The final phase in an agile project is the production phase, where process activities are carried out to prepare the product for delivery, as well as reviewing the final project and other closing processes. Flahiff, J. 2011).

The PMBOK® Guide states that generally, the transformation from one stage to another contains some type of technological transmission. This is a phrase that assures the reader that a cascade methodology is suitable while following the practices of the PMBOK® Guide. At the end of each iteration, the code increment is completed by the team and verified by the customer. Regardless of the outcome, the next iteration begins as planned (unless the project is discontinued) – only the work content can be changed for that iteration.

Due to this regular incremental delivery rate, many people have suggested that each iteration of an agile project is a project, which has a start and end date. The waterfall methodology outlines the processes of analysis, design, coding, testing, and deployment, which were all completed as part of a project. Because these are the things that are done within an iteration in agile, the reasonable supposition for several was that an iteration made a project. But an iteration accurately stated as a phase or subphase of the project, while using PMBOK® Guide language. Projects are “commenced to generate long-term results” and the project team commonly remaining the equivalent until the end of the project. (Project management institute, 2004).

PMBoK guide describes that the agile project life cycle is basically a fractal, as demonstrated through the different stages. An agile project can contain several calendar publications or periods, which involve repetitions, that add a workgroup code. Each has the beginning phase in which preparation is the main method, middle phases, and ending phase in which evaluations and retrospectives are important processes. Agile iterations commenced with a scheduling conference to outline what will be completed in the iteration and finished with an evaluation to learn from the procedures and attain client acceptance of the features that are distributed. (Rose, K. H.2013).

One part in which agile projects and the PMBOK® Guide disagree is the participation of the shareholders. In agile projects, there is an expectancy of the active participation of a client or customer representative during the period of the project. The PMBOK® Guide states that stakeholder impact arises and then drops during the project break. In agile projects, however, the shareholders’ effect remains strong and not declined until the product is released and finished. (Sliger, M. 2008).

The main benefit of agile project management is the ability to respond to problems that may be completed during the project. Agile methods are known for emphasizing communication and customer engagement. For each iteration that can be offered, the development team and customers meet, where team members summarize and discuss the work done in this iteration. But users can comment on distributed software to improve existing features or add additional features to the system.

Agile software development practices have been developed to ensure customer satisfaction, reduce the development lifecycle, reduce error rates, and adapt to changing business needs throughout the development process. This is a very useful tool in the modern software development process to replace the traditional heavyweight development cycle. However, it is not yet completed and faces many obstacles to implement it. (Leau, Y. B., et al. 2012).

Conclusion

Agile and Waterfall are different methods of software development and excellent in their own way. Agile also follows the PMBOK guide project life cycle model. It divides the life of project development into sprints and gradually follows the incremental procedure. The cascade software development process is a sequential design process and used in the manufacture or construction sectors. Agile development is a process in which requirements are expected to change and evolve so it is suitable for projects that do not anticipate clear requirements and changes.

References

1. Project Management Institute. (2004). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) —Third Edition. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
2. Leau, Y. B., Loo, W. K., Tham, W. Y., & Tan, S. F. (2012). Software development life cycle AGILE vs traditional approaches. In International Conference on Information and Network Technology (Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 162-167).
3. Rao, K. N., Naidu, G. K., & Chakka, P. (2011). A study of the Agile software development methods, applicability and implications in industry. International Journal of Software Engineering and its applications, 5(2), 35-45.
4. Balaji, S., & Murugaiyan, M. S. (2012). Waterfall vs. V-Model vs. Agile: A comparative study on SDLC. International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management, 2(1), 26-30.
5. Sliger, M. (2008). Agile project management and the PMBOK® guide. Project Management Institute.
6. Project Management Methodologies and Frameworks, 2019. Retrieved from https://activecollab.com/project-management-guides/project-management-methodologies-and-frameworks.
7. Rose, K. H. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fifth Edition. Project management journal, 44(3), e1-e1.
8. Top project management methods. Retrieved from: https://www.nutcache.com/blog/8-top-project-management-approaches-methods-techniques/.
9. Atkinson, R. (1999). Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria. International journal of project management, 17(6), 337-342.
10. Flahiff, J. (2011). Integrating agile in a waterfall world. Project Management Institute.
11. Palmquist, M. S., Lapham, M. A., Miller, S., Chick, T., & Ozkaya, I. (2013). Parallel worlds: Agile and waterfall differences and similarities (No. CMU/SEI-2013-TN-021). CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIV PITTSBURGH PA SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INST.

Project Time Management

Communication of Schedule Baseline

A schedule baseline can be referred as a target baseline is the original approved project schedule, which is agreed by project stakeholders before the project starts. It does not change. It normally includes the expected time scale for delivery of the final project outcomes such as estimated costs and estimated use of resources.

Firstly, stakeholders imagine the project with bigger picture so that the project manager should clearly communicate with then to identify, document their goals and purposes. The stakeholders need to share the detailed description of the project so that it helps the organisation.

• Schedule a meeting: It is one of the most common method used in an organization. This method can save time in conveying the messages to large number of people in an organization.
• Scheduling a conference call: It is one of common method used in some situation where the issues is too urgent for a meeting.
• Lunch meeting: It is one of the informal way of communication with stakeholders, but it is great idea for getting honest feedbacks.

Tracking Schedule

We can find the variances in the project that we got off from the track; that means the tasks which are delayed from the planned schedule. Here we can see the variances of -5, -5, and -2. To get on track to the project, we need to find out some solutions:

• Firstly, we need to figure out why our project got off from the track and find out the solution to that problem.
• Modify or add to the original objectives if people’s needs have been changed.
• We needed to work with team members to confirm, modify, or to eliminate the activities which are originally identified or add new ones.
• Revise our original schedule and allow for the work to complete the remaining work by the required end date.
• We should recruit additional team members for the project if necessary.
• We need to identify, analyse, and plan to minimize the negative impact of the risks in the project.

Control Schedule Process

Milestone are the significant points in the execution phase. These project milestones include deliverables, dates, deadlines and other important events. W can get information on outputs and deadlines from the project and add the dates for team meetings and progress meetings with stakeholders. We can also include key externals, such as resource delivery dates, due dates for outsourced tasks and any information can helps to determine the things which are on schedule.

Gantt chart displays tasks that shows which activities in the project overlap and by how much, and identifies project milestones in a bar-chart format. Creating one by using project management software to better track the project. It will provide specific directions on how to construct the chart. Gantt chart displays each task and milestone on the left side and in right side, it displays a bar which record the start, duration and end date.

Reports are produced by the Project Manager in agreement with the Project Sponsor. It should establish with what progress has been made, what work is left remaining, and what the issues are. For some projects progress, it is reviewed at regular intervals, whereas for others such reviews are carried out at natural breakpoints in the project at the end of stages or at major milestones. The project progress report is often chosen by the project and sponsor.

Implement Agreed Schedule Changes

Monitoring and Controlling a project is the process or activities where the project manager tracks, reviews and revises the project activities in order to creates the deliverable according with the project objectives.

The primary results of the Monitoring and Controlling processes are the project performance reports and implementing project changes. The focus for project management is to analyse the project performance to determine whether a change is needed in the plan for the remaining project activities to achieve the project goals.

1. Clarify: Clarify the problem by asking questions like in which part of the project did it occur? Who was involved? When did it happen?
2. Investigate: Investigate the details about what happened and gather data from both the project activity and the surrounding environment.
3. Evaluate: Evaluate the options to address the problem. Consider the impact on the project objectives that each potential solution would likely have. What new risks are associated with each potential solution?
4. Choose: Choose among the viable solution/recovery paths. If necessary, coordinate the decision with key stakeholders.
5. Implement: Implement the selected solution/recovery path. Modify the project plan with respect to any changes in scope, resources, or scheduled dates of any activities. Update the risk register.
6. Validate: Validate that the solution/recovery path is achieving the desired results.
7. Review Project Time Management

(Review your project performance in terms of time management. Would your time management activities be considered effective? Why/why not?)

Project Management Reviews are formal documented meetings with the project team and key stakeholders that review the current status of the project as compared to the original project plan. The format for these reviews is usually set by the stakeholders and addresses the topics that are most important to them. The review may be a formal meeting, it may be an informal discussion setting, a written report, or an update to an electronic dashboard.

Time management activities can be considered as effective because the project managers use trade-offs during project planning and every week of the project whenever they have a variance or a change request.

Project Management Software: Pros And Cons

Introduction

Special Olympics is operational in Northern California serving athletes with intellectual disabilities. These athletes are majorly children and in some case the young adults who are being coached by the best trainers and being provided the services by hundreds of volunteers each year. The company was developed in 1968 with the aim of providing benefits and services to the disable person. This number has been increasing since then and the company has been trying to reach the disabled intellectuals to try and support them. The company provides different types of sports platforms for children, young and adults who have intellectual disabilities to try and compete in various competitions. With the help of these activities being provided to these individuals, the company has been using many opportunities to keep them fit and trained. These individuals are provided courage and zest for life by experiencing normal activities and entertainment activities including the awards ceremony. The skills and experience of these individuals are shared with others in order to develop a healthier environment for disabled intellectuals (Special Olympics, n.d.).

Vision, Mission and Objectives of Enterprise

Vision

The vision of the company is not only to provide the facilities to intellectual disabled person but also to bring a social change and to unlock the joy of fitness and sports for everyone. The company has vision to let people understand and accept the human giftedness and to accept the intellect which is present in disabled individuals in all aspect of lives. It wants to unite people with different capabilities and disabilities to join hand and bring change to the world.

Mission

The mission of Special Olympics is to provide sports and athletics trainings and competitions to children, young and adults with intellectual disabilities for various sports activities and provide them opportunity to build themselves physically and mentally. The company envisioned to provide courage and motivation to these special individuals for standing up in the society with other individuals and allow them to share skills and experiences with each other.

Objectives

The objective of the company is to provide opportunities to the intellectual disabled persons and thus providing various benefits and opportunities in the form of sports activities and platform to learn and share experiences with each other. The objective of the company includes.

1. Providing excellence through the use of each opportunity and to improve the quality of the programs developed for the disabled intellectuals.
2. The company aims at integrating these special skills from different cultures and backgrounds and providing respect and strength to everyone in their style, culture, ethnicity and thoughts.
3. The company has aim to make a difference in the society even if no one is looking and paying attention.
4. The company’s objective is to bring these intellectual disabled individuals together and give them resect and honor for their difference in abilities and to treat them like they deserve to be treated.

Organizational functions Under Study

Special Olympics arrange different gaming programs for the students and youngsters. The USA games in Seattle by the company bring different students on board and promote inclusion, understanding and friendship among them. This program is the heart of Special Olympics activities. In Northern California and Nevada chapter, the teams were sent to Seattle to play at different platforms. There were more than 300 events to be handled by the Senior Manager named Abe Cruz (Kitch, n.d.). He was the only person responsible for every activity done at these events including handling of marketing team, producing the whole event including voices, images etc.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using Project Management Softwares

There are various advantages which the companies has for using project management softwares for handling the projects and project activities and to keep track of these activities. The advantages which the software provides to the organizations is given below

1. It helps in improving the collaboration among team members
2. It helps in improving the planning and scheduling activities and to keep track of these activities.
3. It helps in better integration of different project tasks and events on a single platform and to include more components to the projects.
4. It helps in better handling and eases in the management of cost of the project.
5. It helps in assessing to the project resources remotely.
6. It helps in mitigating the overall risks on the project and events.

Certain disadvantages of the use of project management software include.

1. It is a costly investment to develop or buy project management software to handle the project activities and communication.
2. It is difficult for many individuals to use complex technological systems.
3. With the need for providing control access to the project components, there is a need to handle the access control mechanism in these systems which is costly to implement.

The companies need to use project management software for handling the activities of their business. It depends upon the nature of business and the number of individuals to be handles and number of activities to be scheduled. The companies handling a huge number of events and projects need to use these softwares in order to keep track of all the activities and tasks.

Use of Project Management Software

The team at Special Olympics decided to use project management software in order to handle the work management. They decided to use Asana because of its simple interface and specific features which can be used by the company including custom fields in multiple templates. It was found to be effective by making the workflow easier and efficient. The company got the featured product and services at 50% discount rate because of the nature of the business and the social benefit it provide to the society. The use of Asana for the company resulted in better and efficient results (“Special Olympics”, n.d.). The usage of software for Special Olympics in described briefly.

1. The team of the Special Olympics has been able to manage more than 300 events each year using the project management software. The templates from the software are being used to develop and plan the Summer Games fundraiser with much faster speed than usual. This also helps in keeping the critical things evaluated and the software allows them to track the entire plan from start to end.
2. Requests and Approvals are now much easier for the program manager because he has everything on the software that needs approval or suggestions or requests. This is done without any delays in the system operations.
3. It also helps in prioritizing of the tasks. The project manager prioritizes the tasks based on urgency and adds more resource to the critical and urgent tasks. This helps in handling the tasks by arranging the team meetings and discussion sessions online.

Role of Project Manager

The role of project manager is important for handling the project management software. In Special Olympics, the project manager was handling all the major functions of the system. All the approvals and requests were personally handled by him in order to keep informed of all the activities being done on the project. It allows the project manager to develop a more innovative and useful schedule to handle hundreds of events and thousands of resources on those events. The project manager keeps himself informed of all the activities which was not possible to do before the use of project management software. The performance of the daily tasks is monitored by the project manager at the end of the end which allows him to calculate the overall status of the project activities.

Implications, Conclusion and Recommendations

It was observed by Special Olympics team that with the use of Asana, they were able to produce the event and handle the marketing chores in half time than before. Yet, this time, the event was more memorable and successful in many ways. The company admitted that it was not possible for them to manage the great opening of the summer games without the help of Asana. So it is concluded that for the companies who are handling more than one project and more than one event at a time, there is a need to use good project management software. This not only helps them in streamlining their activities but also helps in handling the resources in easy way.

It is recommended for companies to first evaluate the need for the project management software and then consider multiple options. Evaluating each option can help them identify the best software which they can use for handling the operations of the business. The second thing is training the team members to use the software in a way that it can improve the efficiency of the business functions and project activities.

References

1. https://www.disabled-world.com/sports/special-olympics/
2. https://www.sode.org/about/mission-and-vision/
3. Kitch, B. (n.d.). Special Olympics Northern California & Nevada is leveraging a Legacy of Impact to Build a Data-driven Future. Retrieved from: https://blog.upmetrics.com/special-olympics-northern-california-nevada-is-leveraging-a-legacy-of-impact-to-build-a-data-driven-future
4. Special Olympics Northern California and Nevada produces more impactful events with Asana. (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://asana.com/case-study/special-olympics-norcal
5. Special Olympics. (n.d.). Retrieved from: https://www.specialolympics.org/programs/united-states/northern-california

Success Factors Of Project Manager

Introduction

Well, there are a few critical factors relating to a project’s success, but the author, based on her experience thinks that effective governance is one of the most vital of them all (Meredith & Mantel, 2014, p 180). The project can manifest as a successful end product based on clear goals and laid out objectives, and competent teams realise the vision as goals (Meredith & Mantel, 2014, p 92). Further, Risk management, contingency planning and TOP management support seals it all towards success (Rasiel, 1999).

Critical Success Factors for Project Success

Having the experience of working closely within IT and Health sectors, the author finds effective governance and having goals and objectives of high importance within the public service domains, such as health, education and government. For instance, within an IT software development requires skilled developers as a critical factor. Whereas, a project in which the teams are globally dispersed, effective communication skills and productive collaborations become vital (Wang et al., 2009, p 597), so it is highly dependent on the project context. The most critical PM task is to identify the essential factors of success for the concerned project, at the very onset. For example with a plan to enable:

• TOP executives to lay out clear objectives & goals
• Leaders to follow good governance practices
• Choose competent teams to realise goals
• Be prepared with an effective risk management plan

PM needs to put efforts towards garnering a commitment from all the project stakeholders (teams, customers, TOP management & shareholders). The TOPP management sets goals and receiving sponsors is the key with the Executive management making all decisions and laying out company goals & strategies (Patanakul & Shenhar, 2012, p 17). Maintaining and relating the project strategies in line with the sponsor’s understanding (& environment) will require effective communication skills above all to define management’s efficiency (Wang et al., 2009, p 597).

Making sure that the project goals and deliveries remain realistic requires managers to enable SMART objectives (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound), especially when the project is treated as a temporary organisation (Turner & Müller, 2003, p 7). Differentiating between a project and a programme is another essential skill suggested by Turner & Müller (2003, p7).

• Especially when the project is treated as a temporary organisation, conflicts are inevitable (Turner & Müller, 2003, p 7). Managers should work towards enabling an agreement between involved parties a contingency plan. Identify & resolve quicker.
• Proper risk management policies ought to be established from the onset.
• Perhaps one of the essential factors will be establishing a solid leadership within the project. Someone who is approachable and capable of applying the right (best) practices throughout the project development life cycle.
• Project management focuses on project planning, scheduling & resource management (Patanakul & Shenhar, 2012, p 5) by utilising tools such as bar charts, PERT charts etc. Clear vision and thought process enables the management to plan better and in turn maintains a well-organised project schedule & successful execution.
• Strategic communication ensures the health of the project remains good. After managing a business for the past four years, one of the essential lessons learnt is to document everything and get it agreed with the stakeholders. On a regular basis (through different channels), managers must communicate with team members, TOP management and consumers at required levels throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Conclusion

Throughout the past modules, we have realised that without the TOP Management’s Support & Planning, projects can easily derail from its path, far away from success. The author, when working on an Iron and Steel industry Project, realised the importance of freeing the CEO for his leadership job. By implementing the McKinley’s TOPP (Total operational performance & productivity) model (Rasiel, 1999), which efficiently guided the executive team to make decisions and take the initiative. So, in pure honesty, management success is not only based on the project’s context and the defined sector. But, most importantly the level of good governance & effective communication, the realisation of goals on the very onset and risk management are by far most critical for success.