Example Of Report On Project Management

Project management

Project management is the recent approach to control and manage the process of new product development, organizational changes, and initiatives from start to finish point. The project management process is generally applied in the projects related to building construction, new product development, innovational product, or in the launch of advertising campaigns.
Projects are usually considered as the temporary processes as they have finite length. They are usually processed one time. Project managers break downs the project into several project tasks or activities through the process called as work breakdown structure. The structure consists of different activities with allocated budget to each activity. Small projects usually do not require project manager to follow project management techniques; however, the complex projects need efficient planning and approach, and skilled management team. This paper will discuss certain important concepts of project management. Later, it will discuss how they can be useful for the given project.

Project Management Triangle

Project management triangle consists of cost, time, and scope. It is usually used by the project managers to understand the difficulties in the project. However, many other project constraints also needs to be considered. The experience, skills, and efficiencies of the project manager plays an important role in tackling with these constraints. The project manager must complete the project in the given time and budget.
Time is one of the most critical factor of any project as if the project manager fails to complete the project in time then it may affect the entire project output. A project can come across various kinds of factors that may delay the project; for example, natural disasters, and lack of resources .
It is important to make the cost estimate before the implementation of the project. For this reason, the managers prepare the budget plan for the project. There are different project management techniques used to allocate the budget to each project activity. Ratio method is the mostly used for preparing the cost management plan of the project.
Scope is another important constraint. It plans to achieve the particular outcome of the project consisting of the deliverables at each phase .

Project Management Lifecycle

Project management lifecycle contains five main stages including, initiation, planning, and execution, monitoring & controlling, and closing. During the initiation phase, the project manager defines the overall parameters of the project. This phase of the project includes the scope statement and project charter. The scope statement of the project must be based on SMART objectives. It means that the goal statement should be specific, measurable, agreed-upon, realistic, and time-framed. The scope statement is first approved by the client and then the project work is initiated. During the planning phase, infrastructure, responsibilities, and costing of the project are defined. The planning phase is based on the scope statement and thus, the budget, work plan, risk management plan, change management plan, and other plans are made accordingly. During the execution phase, all plans, processes, and procedures are applied. The project manager is responsible to control and monitor all functions and resources. In the last phase, all processes are winded up after the client approves the project deliverables.

Project Management Plan

The given information regarding the project has been entered into the MS Project and Gantt chart has been developed. The screenshots of the MS Project are given as under. The project includes eight activities. The given information also includes the required time duration for each activity. The start and finish times are automatically scheduled in MS Project as according to the given predecessors. The resources to be used for each activity in the project are also given in the table and have been assigned accordingly. MS Project greatly helps in drawing the network diagram and the resource planning of the project; since, it does not require any manual effort, but it is developed automatically as according to the given information of activities, duration, and predecessors.

Project Information

In the following table, the activity ‘A’ does not have any predecessor. It would finish in two days and by the end of this, activity, ‘B’, ‘C’, and ‘F’ activities will start together. The activity ‘B’ will finish in two days; however, ‘C’ will take three days to complete. As soon as the activity ‘B’ finishes, the activity ‘D’ will start. Similarly, as activity ‘C’ finishes, an activity ‘E’ starts. By the end of activity ‘E’, an activity ‘G’ will start. An activity ‘H’ will start as all the three activities ‘D’, ‘F’, and ‘G’ finishes. The activity ‘F’ will take the most time to complete. The total time required to complete the project is 33 days. However, the project managers use different techniques to reduce project completion time. They determine the least and maximum time that any activity would take to complete. Moreover, critical path is calculated to determine which activities are necessary to complete the project in the most efficient manner. These techniques help managers to carry out the project in the least number of resources, yet performing all the necessary steps for the project.

Gantt chart

Network Diagram
This project is scheduled to start on 19 Feb 2015 and finish on 24 Mar 2015. Three types of resources that are generally used in any project includes finance, human resources, and physical. These three major types of resources can be further divided. Financial resources include, cash equivalents that are bonds, savings, shares, and money in personal accounts. Financial resources also include, current credit availability, financial institutions, and credit lines, and ability to make money. Human resources include workers’ experience, team morale, personal skills, worker loyalty, term work strength, workers’ skills, and workers’ knowledge. Physical resources include buildings, land, tools, equipment, vehicles, and computers.
Suppose, if the project manager is assigned a task to plan a construction of a lab in the university. For this project, the following resources will be required:

Financial Resources

Cash
Human Resources
Labor force
Project Manager
Technical Staff
Physical Resources
Land
Tools
Computers and other equipment
The University owns all the above resources. However, now it depends on the project manager, how well these resources are brought into use for the project. Before, starting the construction work, the project manager will plan each task as according to the requirements. For this purpose, business plan or model will be broken down into different objectives. Then, the resources required to achieve these objectives will be listed. The number of resources and units of each resource required to complete each task will be determined by the project manager. The number of units required of each resource for the lab project in the University are given in the following table:

Other resources that the project may require are as follows:

Innovative designs of the lab
Problem solving techniques
Creative abilities
Professional connections
Supplier relations
In order to manage resources of the organization, project managers use different techniques. Since, the organizations have limited resources, so it is important to develop resource allocation plan for the effective management of the project. The management plan includes the number of units of each resource and the time at which specific resource is required. By allocating the resources as according to the requirements and at the perfect time helps the organization saving their resources from being wasted. If all resources are requested in the start of the project then they may be wasted in the later stages of the project. Therefore, the resources should be planned as according to the project requirements in each phase .
In order to ensure that the project may provide long-term benefits, it is planned as according to the latest trends in the market. Moreover, the plan is made as flexible as it is possible so that changes can be made in later time as according to the requirements. There are different planning techniques used to plan the project. However, they are implemented as according to the requirements of the project and the clients. Project manager prepares a change management plan in which it is defined, how changes in the project would be catered, controlled, and accepted. It is most suitable to provide the project report to the client after the completion of every phase so that any changes can be made right at the completion time of each phase; thus, absolutely satisfying the client. In addition, the project manager develops other plans to ensure the efficient completion of the project. These include communication management plan, staffing management plan, quality management plan, and others .

References

Bojan, Dragon & Dejan, 2014. Project Management: Cost, Time, and Quality. 8th International Quality Conference, 23 May.
Henderson, K. J., 2014. Project Cost Management Techniques. [Online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/project-cost-management-techniques-3995.html
Naybour, P., 2010. What is Project Management Framework?. [Online] Available at: http://blog.parallelprojecttraining.com/project-management-articles/what-is-a-project-management-framework/?doing_wp_cron=1420205884.6919729709625244140625
Tutorials Point, 2013. Project Management Triangle. [Online] Available at: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/project_management_triangle.htm