Facilitator
Project management is a core practice in modern businesses. However, most managers do not understand the significance of this strategic business management practice. Project management is a helpful practice in business because it allows managers to plan for the project (Tria, 2003, p. 3; Dash, 2002, p.127; Ferdows, 2006, p. 8). Through planning, a manager allocates the available resources. Planning is necessary because of the scarcity of resources.
Project management enables an organization to execute a plan successfully without making grievous mistakes. A project that goes through all stages of project management can hardly fail (Thamhain, 2012, p. 10). Therefore, project management reduces operation cost by eliminating mistakes in the designing and implementation of strategies. Proper planning enables the management to salvage funds that the organization could have lost in failed projects. In contrast, the organization can channel such resources into other constructive ventures (Fisher, 2007, p. 369; GÃrÃg, 2010, p.8).
Project management improves the communication between different departments of the organization. Communication between the business team and the IT department is improved through project management (Halman and Burger, 2002, p. 89). Improved communication ensures that the developers of a system create a system with the specifications from the stakeholders (Hughes, 1997, p. 60). During the development stages, the developers communicate with the stakeholders to inform them on the progress. This is essential since through communication, stakeholders can request for more specifications (Handfield, 2006, p. 419).
Project management allows an organization to manage change. A project is expected to bring change to an organization. The organization needs to manage the change. In this context, project management ensures effective introduction and management of the change in the organization (Levin, 2013, p. 12). Management needs to understand the expected reaction from the staff and other stakeholders. The management team requires to know whether the stakeholders support the project or not (Carter, 2002 p. 45; Larson, 2014, p.13). The project is adopted when the management team endorses it. Furthermore, the individuals opposed to the strategies proposed by the project need to be convinced on the significance of adopting the project. This helps the stakeholders to adapt to future changes (Finn, 1999, p. 579).
Project management allows for prototyping. This serves the purpose of providing the stakeholders or requesters of a system with a sample product. The sample product is a clone and not the final product. The prototype in a project gives the stakeholders a chance to use a system and ask for changes (Mote, 2000, p.55). It is economically cheaper to make changes on a prototype, instead of making changes on the product. Project management has different phases, and the prototype phase is one of them (RSCM, 2013, p 115).
Project management enables an organization to outsource services, which it is unable to perform for itself. Outsourcing of services through project management enables an organization to seek external assistance for their projects (Turner, 2006, p.52). An organization is not able to handle all functions internally, which prompts the need for outsourcing. Through outsourcing, the organization acquires external help and this makes projects successful (Tesch, 2008, p. 48).
Project management is responsible for ensuring that a set project winds up in time. The most important aspect about a project is completion. At the completion phase, the stakeholder expects to view the project in which they invested their resources (Zekic and Luka, 2012, p. 100). Project management enables a project to reach the completion phase in good time. The completion of a project in the expected time ensures that the organization works with the proposed budget. This ensures that the organization does not incur additional costs (IEEE TEMPI, 2004, p. c2).
Project management ensures that normal business operations are not affected by ongoing projects. Project managers provide a schedule, which indicates the flow of different phases of the project. The schedule ensures that the organization does not focus entirely on a single project leaving out its core purpose (IJMIS, 2006, p. 378).
- Reference List
Carter, F. 2002. Project Management. Store Source. N.p. Available at: http://www.pmi.org/Movies/4StandardsVideos/PMBOKonly.html. [Accessed: 25 Feb. 2014]
Dash, P. 2002. TIPS ON: Project management. Harvard Business Review 325(7369) pp.127Sa-127.
Ferdows, K. 2006. POM Forum: Transfer of Changing Production Know-How. Production and Operations Management, 15 (1), pp. 1-9.
Finn, T. A. 1999. A Case of Telecommunications (Mis)Management. Management Communication Quarterly, 12(4) pp. 575-579.
Fisher, M. 2007. Strengthening the Empirical Base of Operations Management. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 9(4), pp.368-382.
GÃrÃg, M. 2010. Translating single project management knowledge to project programs. Business Week.
Halman, J., and Burger, 2002. Evaluating effectiveness of project start-ups: an exploratory study. PM Network 20(1), pp. 81-89.
Handfield, R. 2006. The state of JOM: An outgoing editor's (retro)spective. Journal of Operations Management 24(5) pp.417-420.
Hughes, W.1997. Construction management contracts: law and practice. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 4(1) pp.59-79.
"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management Publication Information." (IEEE TEMPI). 2004. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 51(1) pp. c2-c2.
"Index to Journal of Management Information Systems” (IJMIS). 2006. Journal of Management Information Systems 22(4) pp. 377-382.
Larson, E. 2014. Â Roles of Project Management. Erik Larson, Available at: http://business.oregonstate.edu/faculty-and-staff-bios/erik-larson [Accessed: 25 Feb 2014].
Levin, G. 2013. Project Management for Non-Project Managers. Project Management Journal 44(5) pp.e2-e2.
Mote, J. 2000. Economists in the Next Millennium: One Voice or Many?." The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 1 Jan. p. 55.
"Resources and Supply Chain Management" (RSCM). 2013. Journal of Supply Chain Management 49(1) pp. 115-115.
Tesch, D. 2008. Project Management: IS/IT Research Challenges. The Straits Times 1 Jan. p. 48
Thamhain, H. 2012. The Changing Role of Team Leadership in Multinational Project Environments. Revista de Gestão e Projetos 3(2) 4, n/a. ProQuest. Accessed: 25 Feb. 2014.
Tria, H. 2003. Making project management indispensable for business results. A®. PMI. Version 3. N.p. Available at: http://www.pmi.org/Pages/default.aspx. [Accessed: 25 Feb. 2014].
Turner, J. 2006. Towards a theory of project management: The nature of the project governance and project management. International Journal of Project Management 24(2) pp. 93-95.
Zekic, Z, and Luka S. 2012. Project Management of Dynamic Optimization of Business Performance. International Business Research 5(12) pp. 99-111. ProQuest. [Accessed: 25 Feb. 2014]
