Philosophy Of Project Management

 In today’s society where we are surrounded by fast life and busy careers, the use of project management can be efficient and essential in the workplace as well as your day-to-day life. The practice of initiating, organizing, maintaining, and achieving the goal you were set to create for your project can have very effective outcomes for yourself as well as your team/company. Project management should not be confused with “operations in a business. Some examples of a project could be rebranding a website, planning an event, building a house etcetera. A good project manager will direct/aid you in the right direction and goal you are trying to achieve. A project can be a product, service, or result so the possibilities of perusing a project with any job are endless. This essay will look into the first few weeks of what was taught in the project management module like different project management categories, methodologies, CHAOS reports, as well as some stories and examples from my own life.

During the first lesson, we learned the methodologies of project management. The process of project management falls into five categories; initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and finally closing. The initiating process consists of defining the beginning of a project and figuring/setting a budget to obtain the main goal. The triple constraint is discussed in the beginning stages to inherent in managing a project. The triple constraint “states the project is impacted by its budget, deadlines, and features.  As a manager of that project, you can trade between these three constraints; however, changing the constraints of one means that the other two will suffer to some extent” (Westland 2018). The triple constraint diagram which is usually shown as the “iron triangle” consists of the budget, scope, schedule.

Once you define these three constraints you can then understand your boundaries in your project and adjust accordingly while going through the next four categories. See below the diagram, and having all three constraints combined can equal a quality and effective project. Doing the initiating process sets a clear understanding for all the individuals participating in the project and has all duties under progression.

Second, the planning process is finding out what is required to fulfill the project’s end goal as well as assembling lists and clarification on team members’ roles. Thirdly, the execution process which “involves managing teams effectively while orchestrating timeline expectations and reaching benchmark goals. Project managers utilizing this set of skills will demonstrate a high degree of organization and communication skills while addressing team concerns or other complex situations associated with getting the work done on time and within budget” (Villanova 2012). This stage is basically bringing the plan that was designed in the prior two stages to action. The fourth step, which is the monitoring and control process; is the

management monitoring if plans need to be adjusted, addressing the budget as well as time, and constantly having an eye on what all activities are going on and if something is about

to happen, they can fix accordingly. Lastly, the closing process is having your project is done effectively and efficiently within the time that was given as well as the budget you

were given and having the closure of the project which you can review and improve on future endeavours. Aside from the main five project management processes, they are also ten knowledge areas. This includes user involvement, executive support, clear business objective, emotional maturity, optimizing scope, agile process, project management expertise, skilled resources, execution, and finally the tools and infrastructure. All project management should use these to optimize their end goal.

As mentioned previously above, the agile process, which entails 12 key principles within its methodology. The first reading, Principles behind the Agile Manifesto, had shown the 12 in-depth principles of agile. Agile was originally developed for the software industry to develop rapidly and fix issues or defects, which now in a digital workplace this method is great for improving flexibility, productivity, and increasing transparency. Agile is highly interactive which makes it easier to make adjustments throughout a project and probably the most used methodology in the 21st century. Now, within agile, there are popular methods such as Scrum, which has a daily framework for implementing in projects. It shows what was done the previous day, what the team is currently working on for the current day, and what is blocking the process of the project. At the same time, Scrum also has a framework called retrospective which shows what went well and poorly during the process. This shows how to start, stop, and keep in the

current task. These were the two main frameworks within scrum that were discussed in the lecture. There are three key roles within Scrum which is the Scrum master, product owner, and the Scrum team members.

Here is a diagram of the full scrum process, but keep in mind that the scrum method is not successful for every company. Another agile methodology is Kanban, this method is great for “managing the creation of the products with an emphasis on continual delivery which not overburdening the development team” (2019). There are some big differences between Kanban and Scrum such as their cadence, key metrics, and role. For instance, Scrum has the 3 roles while Kanban has no existing roles. Another difference is that Scrum has regular fixed sprints while Kanban has a continuous flow. Another type of agile methodology is extreme programming which is similar to a scrum which is to improve software quality and have responsive actions to customers’ requirements. Extreme programming goes through the architectural spike, releases planning, iteration to acceptance test and then from a customers approval then move on to small releases.

All these methods aside, Project Managers have different tools to keep in professional contact within their team such as Basecamp, Slack, Trello, Google Docs, MS Project, and/or Jira. You can plan, oversight and collaborate with other team users. Using these programs keeps all team members in the loop and that everyone knows what is going on within the whole process. Project managers might need to hire different people for their select skills for different aspects of

the project. To understand the outcome of your projects, there are CHAOS Reports. CHAOS Report “is a study based on The [[Standish Group]]’s CHAOS Research Project on IT project success rates and project management best practices” (2008). The CHAOS reports show projects by their successes, challenges, budget, and failure. As mentioned before, to obtain a successful project is the “Iron Triangle” which is time, scope, a budget that can equal into quality outcome. These reports can help develop and relook the dynamic of the project on what went well or what has gone wrong within the venture. The hope of these reports is that every year in a business the success rates grow while the failures decrease and showing the yearly progressions and interpret what needs to be changed.

In spite of all these theories of project management, I have implemented certain methods and steps into my own education within many group projects. One example that comes to mind is when Isabel and I were attending our fall semester abroad in England and we had a group project for our Media and Culture Theory module. Being the foreigners, Isabel and I had to be the leaders and prove ourselves to the other team members. We had to execute our plan, be creative, and show our goal to our other members to develop something for the end result which in this case was a presentation and PowerPoint. Looking back at it, we essentially had to cover the five main project management categories and doing this it resulted in a successful mark. Working together as a team and discussing what needs to be improved resulted in an accomplishment for the professor as well as the students. There are many scenarios, in school as well as my part-time job that require project management. Businesses need to thrive on leadership, communication, outlining the goal, and time management to see development within their projects.

To summarize, project management is essential to optimize the quality and success you want to achieve for any project. In the digital era, working with these methods in your project management teams can lead to development in one’s company/business and/or create a positive outcome for the customer. Discussing your initial plan and keeping a time, budget, scope and then executing it successfully can be done with a great team and even better with a good project manager. Having someone to aide from the start of the project until the end is essential for an establishment. I hope to learn more from these lectures about different methods and executions to use in my digital communications career.

References

1. Klein, L. (2016). Build better products: A modern approach to building successful user-centered products nLaura Klein. Brooklyn, NY: Rosenfeld Media.
2. Westland, J. (2018, March 04). The Triple Constraint in Project Management: Time, Scope & Cost. Retrieved January 31, 2019, from https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/triple-constraint-project-management-time-scope-cost
3. University, V. (2012, December 12). Project Management Process Groups. Retrieved January 31, 2019, from https://www.villanovau.com/resources/project-management/pmbok-project-management-process-groups/
4. What Is Kanban? An Introduction to Kanban Methodology. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2019, from https://resources.collab.net/agile-101/what-is-kanban
5. CHAOS Report. (2008, September 17). Retrieved January 31, 2019, from https://getlevelten.com/wiki/chaos-report