Introduction
In the modern age of corporation, businesses tend to expand their operational reach through a penetration in newer markets. The penetration requires effective teamwork and deployment of limited resources in order to achieve the long-term objectives. The corporate objectives are achieved through an execution of multiple and temporary activities called projects. These projects are different in nature, size, and resource allocation. An effective and timely completion of these plan-oriented activities requires a systematic framework, prominently known as “Project Management”.
The Project Management is based on nine key elements that define purpose, approaches, requirements, and execution of the discipline. This paper will focus on three essential key elements with a practical implication in the modern era.
Discussion
Project Management – Managing Scope through Objectives of Sponsors
The scope of a project is important for initiating any possible conduct and concluding with strict compliance. By definition, the scope of a project signifies features that are required to meet the corporate objectives. In general, the scope is a simple skeleton that defines and provides direction to the project management team. The direction is responsible for effective allocation of resources and defining the precise span of the project. The scope comprises with three core components namely planning, controlling, and closing. Planning refers to resource allocation and outcomes that are desired by companies from a project. Controlling defines frameworks of monitoring and areas that demand changes while project execution is under process. Lastly, the conclusion is a stage where organizations tend to conduct audit and measure compliance with guidelines. The compliance would be stronger if the variation between outcomes and original plan is minimal (Monnappa, 2012).
In order to define a scope of the project effectively, it is essential for the project management team to understand and elaborate the needs of a project. Further, the team needs to communicate the objectives of the project clearly with a sponsoring organization. These are the two fundamental aspects of defining the scope of the project (Monnappa, 2012).
As evidence, the ‘Water Stewardship’ project of Coca Cola is a benchmark for scope definition of a project. The Project Management team of the company specifies that expansion of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) portfolio of Coca Cola is the primary objective of the project. Moreover, the project scope is supported by justified rationales that became core reasons for conducting the project on a massive scale. The company defines the objectives clearly in order to validate every action to sponsors namely WWF and USAID (Coca Cola, 2012).
Quality Management
Quality Management is a backbone element of effective Project Management. The discipline is originated from Project Management but gained a separate recognition. It focuses on multiple outputs, utilities, and procedures that strictly comply with expectations and requirements of stakeholders. Quality Management is a systematic framework of four fundamental components namely planning, assurance, control, and constant enhancement and improvisation. Project Management teams utilize different and contemporary techniques that execute projects with accurate quality. The fifth of nine elements of Project Management is responsible for strengthening the confidence of sponsors, host organization, and associated stakeholders in a specific project. It defines constituents and guidelines that Project Management team should meet with compulsion (APM, 2014).
Murthy and Sreenivas (2014) stated that conventional guidelines of Project Management cater technical and procedural influences on project quality. However, the modern age also focuses on behavioral influences of the stakeholders on the quality of conduct. As evidence, the Kochi Metro Rail Project in Kerala had quality issues with completion and inauguration due to various controversies involving conflicts of interests. The project has various criticisms and biases due to a clash of prominent entities of Indian government (Varma, 2016).
Risk Management
Similar to Quality Management, the Risk Management has also become a separate discipline that originated from Project Management. The discipline allows a Project Management team to identify potential strengths and weaknesses, and external influence through opportunities and threats. The Risk Management allows the team to minimize instituted uncertainties in an execution of a project. After the identification of potential risks, the designated team could develop a contingency plan to deal with uncertain problems and minimize damages (Majeed, 2012).
The metaphor denotes the probability of unexpected events, integrated impacts, post-effects, and counter actions to sustain the quality of project execution. The practice of managing risk strengthens confidence and trust of sponsors and stakeholders. Moreover, the host organization could prevent wastage of resources, which is a subsequent result of project failure (Majeed, 2012).
The corporate history is filled with examples of failed projects that wasted lucrative amount of resources. In 1989, RJ Reynolds invested $325 million in order to develop smokeless cigarettes that completely failed in the market. The core reason behind this massive failure was poor risk evaluation of market and consumer expectation. The project failed and led the company towards bankruptcy (Baer and Yarow, 2014).
Conclusion
The Project Management has become a discipline that is essential for every organization in order to conduct and execute a successful project. The purpose of this field is to initiate, plan, execute, and monitor the activities involved in the project until the conclusion. The discipline has introduced various other disciplines that unlocked various dimensions of efficiency and effectiveness. Defining the scope of the project, ensuring quality through effective management, and risk management are three fundamental elements out of nine. The appropriate alignment of these elements would provide better insights to host businesses, which assist in conducting projects with extreme safety. Moreover, these elements lead businesses to allocate their resources with maximum effectiveness. The significance and implications of these elements were observed in projects regulated by names like Coca Cola, Kochi Metro Rail, and RJ Reynolds.
References
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Baer, D. and Yarow, J. (2014). 22 Of The Most Epic Product Fails in History. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-product-failures-in-business-history-2014-7?op=1 [Accessed 4 Aug. 2016].
Coca Cola, (2012). Water Stewardship - The Coca-Cola Sustainability Project. [online] Coca-colacompany.com. Available at: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainabilityreport/world/water-stewardship.html#section-our-water-stewardship-journey-what-lies-ahead [Accessed 4 Aug. 2016].
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Monnappa, A. (2012). Project Scope Management and its importance. [online] Simplilearn.com. Available at: http://www.simplilearn.com/project-scope-management-importance-rar89-article [Accessed 4 Aug. 2016].
Murthy, A. and Sreenivas, S. (2014). Does People Behavior Impact Projects? How? And what do we do about it?. [online] Projecttimes.com. Available at: https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/does-people-behavior-impact-projects-how-and-what-do-we-do-about-it.html [Accessed 4 Aug. 2016].
Varma, V. (2016). Kochi Metro explained: Kerala’s first metro rail with ‘made in India’ coaches. [online] The Indian Express. Available at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/kochi-metro-keralas-first-metro-rail-with-made-in-india-coaches/ [Accessed 4 Aug. 2016].
