PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Management & Achievement of Organizational Objectives

Table of Contents

Introduction2

Project Life Cycle Management2

Initiation3

Planning3

Execution and controlling3

Closure4

Project Organizations4

Project Team Building5

Project Scope Definition6

Work Break-Down Structure7

Need for Contingency Planning9

Phase Review and its Importance for Sponsors9

PM Software10

Conclusion11

References12

Project Management & Achievement of Organizational Objectives

Introduction

Project management is the science (and art) of organizing the components of a project, whether the project is development of a new product, the launch of a new service, a marketing campaign, or a wedding. A project isn't something that's part of normal business operations. It's typically created once, it's temporary, and it's specific.

Project Life Cycle Management

The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project's goals or objectives. Regardless of scope or complexity, any project goes through a series of stages during its life. There is first an Initiation or Birth phase, in which the outputs and critical success factors are defined, followed by a Planning phase, characterized by breaking down the project into smaller parts/tasks, an Execution phase, in which the project plan is executed, and lastly a Closure or Exit phase, that marks the completion of the project.

Project activities must be grouped into phases because by doing so, the project manager and the core team can efficiently plan and organize resources for each activity, and also objectively measure achievement of goals and justify their decisions to move ahead, correct, or terminate. It is of great importance to organize project phases into industry-specific project cycles. Why? Not only because each industry sector involves specific requirements, tasks, and procedures when it comes to projects, but also because different industry sectors have different needs for life cycle management methodology. And paying close attention to such details is the difference between doing things well and excelling as project managers. (Joseph and Wysocki 2002) Diverse project management tools and methodologies prevail in the different project cycle phases. Let's take a closer look at what's important in each one of these stages:

Initiation

In this first stage, the scope of the project is defined along with the approach to be taken to deliver the desired outputs. The project manager is appointed and in turn, he selects the team members based on their skills and experience. The most common tools or methodologies used in the initiation stage are Project Charter, Business Plan, Project Framework (or Overview), Business Case Justification, and Milestones Reviews.

Planning

The second phase should include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the end of the project. It should also include a risk analysis and a definition of a criteria for the successful completion of each deliverable. The governance process is defined, stake holders identified and reporting frequency and channels agreed. The most common tools or methodologies used in the planning stage are Business Plan and Milestones Reviews.

Execution and controlling

The most important issue in this phase is to ensure project activities are properly executed and controlled. During the execution phase, the planned solution is implemented to solve the problem specified in the project's ...