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QUESTION
Title: W2A1 PMC6601
Order Details:
By Saturday, October 14, 2017.\r\n\r\nRespond to the assigned questions using the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading.\r\n\r\nProject with No Direction: Scenario:\r\n\r\nA major national insurer decided to evolve new business development practices. The project to implement this idea started in 2000 and was led by a succession of key senior vice presidents (VPs) as part of their executive growth. Twelve years later, the organization had still not finished with its stated purpose due to changing requirements, new ideas, a succession of leaders, and executive ambivalence. This effort had all the appearance of a major strategic initiative—three hundred people, a \"war room\" with a great storyboard, and lots of spokespersons. Key staff members were quick to extol the great progress made. However, when the new CEO asked, \"Why are we doing this?\" there was no coherent answer. \r\n\r\nResult: Within days, the entire program was scrapped. In less than a week, the project offices were vacant and phone calls went unanswered. When the project died, no one noticed except the executives who had been the project advocates. They were out of a job.\r\n\r\nExplain the root cause of this situation. There was a huge disconnect between project management and the organizational strategy and strategic direction in this scenario. If so, how could this gap have been bridged?\r\n\r\nAnalyze the triple-constraints relationship among the project scope, cost, schedule, and quality. If quality is held constant and the scope is widened, what will happen to the cost and schedule?\r\n\r\nExplain a WBS created for a project you have worked on. Was a WBS created for a project you have worked on? If so, did the team refer to the WBS while sequencing work and creating a risk plan? What was the outcome? If not, describe how the team determined tasks and sequencing. Evaluate the outcome. Cite additional challenges to a project that might result from poor work breakdown practices.\r\nThe final paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response. \r\n\r\nYour posting should be the equivalent of 2 pages 1000 words in length.\r\n\r\nSubmit your posting to the W2: Assignment 1 Discussion Area by Sunday, October 15, 2017.\r\n\r\n
| Subject | Project Management | Pages | 4 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Introduction
Project plan is vital for realization of set objectives within a given timeline. It ensures that limited resources in terms of human labor, materials, time, and finance are utilized in a good manner. This paper analyses a project that consumed a lot time and resources, lost focus along the way, and the initial purpose was never realized ultimately. Lack of a project plan may lead to project failure as discussed in the provided case below.
Discussion
The root cause of the project that introduced new business development practices was lack of the project plan. The project plan could have helped identified and defined necessary resources, budget and timeline. A project, per se, has a clear starting point, primary objectives to be completed and termination phase. Project resources include project team, leadership structure, materials, and deliverables. A project will lack direction and focus without a developed plan of action (Chou & Yang, 2012).
According to Nixon, Harrington and Parker (2012) leadership performance is the critical factor for success in a given project. In this case, the failed project did not have a defined leader. Careful development of the project team and its leadership should have included one project manager who could have been the spokesperson of the entire project. In another perspective, the project failed as a result of lack of shared goals and expectations. From the look, the project had no defined goals and objectives that were supposed to be accomplished within a given timeline. The project could have run for an extended period if lack of focus and goals would have not been identified in time.
Conflict of interest may have complicated lack of the project plan as the project progressed on. It was evident that project executives, who were strong supporters of this project, had vested interest in the project. The executives had taken the project as form of employments; thus, the longer it dragged on the better for them. It makes sense to project that the project could have gone on if not realized; though late (since 2002). Conflict of interest policies and ethics should be developed that apply to all team members to prevent team members from pursuing personal interests/benefits rather than the ultimate purpose of a given project (Hams et al., 2017).
A single project manager should have been selection before commencement of the project. The project manager was supposed to be a single reference person concerning different aspects project; thus, becoming its spokesperson. A project manager should possess good communication skills and be able to engage the project team, stakeholders or clients and guide them towards the realization of well-defined objectives (Zulch, 2014).
Lack of shared goals, objectives, and expectations of the project could have contributed to its failure. In essence, the change from one vice president to the next, time and again, seemed to have contributed to new ideas, changing requirements, new ideas, and executive ambivalence. Unity of purpose and unidirectional effort towards realization of set objectives increases project success, but was not evident in this scenario. According to Ika and Saint‐Macary (2012) the project manager coordinates project activities for success and reviews client’s specification on a daily basis. A project manager was lacking in this case thus initial purpose of the project was lost along the process of its implementation.
A disconnect between organizational and the project management strategy and strategic direction is, in part, to blame for project failure or loss of focus. Better alignment of the project objectives and goals could have certainly increased realization of desirable outcomes. But this was lacking to a great deal. It could have been possible to bridge the gap.
Key elements such as project scope, schedule, cost, and quality should be clearly defined from the start. Interactions between different elements should be well understood. That is, the effect of change of one element on the other. For instance, when the scope is broadened, but maintaining quality, the project schedule may include more tasks and subtasks and may require a much longer time to complete. Besides, expanded project scope leads to increased costs; thus, more budgetary requirements.
I have been involved in a community-based project aimed at tackling the issue of drug use and abuse among the youth. It was kind of a community-outreach program made up of twenty members. The project lasted for one month. A work breakdown structure (WBS) was developed that gave each and every member sub-tasks to carry-out. Major tasks provision of leaderships, management of project activities, coordination, welfare, including advocating for funds, maintaining mobile and online contact with youths in need of information of rehabilitation services and other assistance, risk management, monitoring and evaluation of progress and outcomes. WBS made our project successful since each team member was referring to the developed WBS to carryout individual project activities.
The WBS enabled the team to collect enough money for conducting project activities, engagement of 34 youths (online and face to face interaction) and completion of the project within the set timeline. Three youths signalled intent of seeking medical/ rehabilitation services to get out of their drug habits. The WBS reduced redundancies and made each and every team member useful through performance of unique subtasks. Zecheru and Olaru (2016) classified WBS as one of the modern management tools that contributes to project success. WBS is effective for risk management, resource management, and realization of objectives (Zecheru, & Olaru, 2016). If project complexities are not broken down into individual components its completion within the schedule may become unrealistic or difficult (Devi & Reddy, 2012).
WBS allows for accurate organization of the project, assignment of responsibilities, and definition of project milestones and control points. Beside, a WBS informs stakeholders about the project scope and facilitate for accurate approximation of risks, cost and time (Devi & Reddy, 2012).
Conclusion
A project plan is the first guideline that must be developed before a project commences. A project ought to have a well-defined timeline, objectives, resources, and deliverables. A project manager helps to plan, coordinate project activities as well as focus project activities towards realization of success. A project manager should have ability in developing a effect WBS for increasing the relevance and function of each team member. Different individuals should be allocated small manageable sub-tasks that are vital for the successful completion of the entire project.
References
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Chou, J.-S. & Yang, J.-G. (2012). Project management knowledge and effects on construction project outcomes: an empirical study. Project Management Journal, 43(5), 47–67. Devi, T. R., & Reddy, V. S. (2012). Work Breakdown Structure of the Project. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 2(2), 683-686. Hams, M., Wilkinson, W. G., Zentner, L., Schmidt, C., Dweik, R.A., Karafa, M., & Rose, S. L. (2017). A new survey to evaluate conflict of interest policies at academic medical centers. PLoS ONE,12(3): e0172472. Ika, L. A., & Saint‐Macary, J. (2012). The project planning myth in international development. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 5(3), 420-439. Nixon, P., Harrington, M., & Parker, D. (2012). Leadership performance is significant to project success or failure: a critical analysis. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 61(2), 204-216. Zecheru, V., & Olaru, B. G. (2016). Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Project Management. Review of International Comparative Management, 17(1), 61-69. Zulch, B. (2014). Leadership Communication in Project Management. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, 172-181.
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