2016-06-06
Literature Research 4
Critical Evaluation 9
III. Conclusion 12
Introduction
Nowadays, project management today is an acknowledged field of professional activity. Methodology and project management tools are widely used in the areas of project-oriented activities, especially in creating new products and services, in targeted changes within individual organizations and companies (Dinsmore and Cabanis-Brewin, 2011).
The increasing complexity of economic processes, increasing the number of control subjects, and constraints that are available at our time, such as the unstable operation of the economy, a sharp reduction in public investment, stable, high inflation rate and others lead to that currently required projects must be conducted in the shortest possible time and bring the maximum profit (Richman and Richman, 2011). That is why the companies are required project activities.
The implementation of projects is an integral part of business processes, which is present in any organization. Projects can vary in type, scope, complexity. According to statistics, participation in projects takes between 30 to 70% of the working time of middle and senior managers (depending on the position and type of business) (Lewis, 2007). An effective implementation of development projects becomes a key factor in the business success in the highly-competitive industries.
Today, the main points of the project management can be represented by the project triangle. It is a symbol that has been popularized by specialist Harold Kerzner in his fundamental work “Project management: a systematic approach to planning, scheduling and control”. The analysis of such project triangle is presented below. The books, journal and other sources have been used for writing this work.
Discussion
Literature Research
One of the main questions of the project management is how to balance the main characteristics of all projects: costs, time and quality. They are can be considered as the main objectives of the project management and are presented below:
the cost (costs). Although the money is a quite flexible resource of the project, the total cost must be established from the outset. In this case, the key task of the project manager is to manage this resource in order that the costs do not exceed the planned amount.
time is absolutely hard resource. If the date has passed, it has not come back. Although certain activities can be made shorter, the time for project completion can be changed only through the redeployment of its objectives.
quality is expressed in that the result should meet the objectives and work as intended (Alleman, 2014).
The project triangle is schematically shown in Figure 1
Time
Cost Quality
“Triangle scale” or “quality triangle” shows the compromise that is inherent to all projects. The project triangle illustrates the relationship between the three paramount factors of the project (Richman, 2012). According to the specialist Russell (2011), the timeline is an available time to achieve certain results, the costs include the amount of money or available resources, and quality is the appropriate goal that the project must achieve in order to succeed.
Typically, one of these factors is constant, but the other two changes in inverse proportion to each other. For example, time is often a constant factor, and the quality of the final product will depend on the available resources or costs. Similarly, if the company works at a certain quality level, then the cost of the project will largely depend on the available time (if the company has more time, it can achieve results by employing fewer people) (Dwyer et al., 2013).
At the same time, according to the opinion of Atkinson (1999), it is a quite interesting situation, when two factors are constant. It usually happens, when the costs are fixed and specific deadlines for achieving results are set. Also, the familiar set of circumstances plays the crucial role. In this case, if the scale starts to increase slowly, it needs to cut back on the functionality of the project results (Burwood, 2012). This practice is used more often than one might think in fact. This is the usual case.
It should be noted that the reduction is a drastic measure, but an experienced project manager will gladly get rid of extra functionality. While the basic requirements fulfill, it will be all right. Additional functionality can always be included in the next release of the project, but if the team does not achieve the primary functionality, the next release will not be. At the same time, an experienced project manager can intentionally include redundant functionality in the project, which can be sacrificed in possible critical moments (Kendrick, 2011).
The above mentioned phenomenon is known as the increase in scale and it can also be associated with the project triangle. Zooming is almost an irreversible process, during which the project needs to develop new functionality. In some cases, expansion is inevitable, as soon this project will be uncertain and will require development. The strong increase in the scale, however, may adversely affect the whole project (Stuckenbruck, 1981).
When the project begins to grow, the project manager needs to add new functionality to cover the increased scale. It is represented as an angle of quality in the triangle, that is responsible for ensuring that the product meets all the requirements of users. In this case, the more requirements are met, the quality of the product is better (Bolles and Hubbard, 2007).
According to expert Ebbesen and Hope (2013), there are three ways in the situations of scale increase. They are as follows:
Thus, if the art of management is based on the decision-making process, then the art of the project management is in making quick decisions. Zooming cannot be ignored. One can deal with this by using one of the methods described above, and the sooner the better. Any delays can increase the risk of project failure (Bowen et al., 2016).
The definition of the project can achieve unique goals with set limits, among which there are minimum time frame, budget and desired level of quality. At the same time, specialists Molak and Smart (2016) consider other “modern” limits in the project triangle: investment (not cost), return on investment (not scope), cost of delay (not time). Anyway, the project must be managed by qualified staff. The project manager is an employee, who is personally responsible for the results. It is the main difference between project and functional managers. Other ones are presented in the table 1 (Singh, 2016).
Tale 1. Project manager vs. Functional manager
The pros and cons of professional project management are based on the above mentioned differences. Each project can be considered as a challenge. So, this kind of activity is more suited to people ambitious, creative, and prone to change. If a person prefers a quiet life, it is unlikely that he enjoys the work in a constantly changing environment (Scope Triangle in Project Planning, 2016).
It should be noted that a weak project manager will accept a triangle scale as a straitjacket whereby the project is unconditionally bound. A good project manager can use the best one or more angles of a triangle to move the focus to the other corners. The good project manager can cover all three angles of a triangle and can make decisions every day that effectively lead to a compromise between time, quality and resources. Thus, one can say that project manager plays a crucial role in the project development and can impact on it on all stages (Forselius, 2015).
Today, companies like the following approach: all company’s functional parts must work in concert to implement certain objectives or projects in order an entity survives and prospers. This approach to project management has begun to take modern forms after the 1960s. Although a variety of business models were developed at that time, they all had a common structure:
the project manager organizes the project,
he also forms a working group;
he provides the integration and interaction within the workflow horizontally between different departments (Highsmith, 2009).
Project Management has continued its development in the past ten years. Thus, two significant trends have appeared:
planning “from the bottom up”. In this trend, the emphasis is on simple project structure, project cycle reduction, effective team collaboration, the deeper involvement of members of the working group and decision-making. This trend is widely known as a dynamic project management, and includes related techniques such as Scrum, Crystal, Extreme Programming, Unified Process and some others.
“top-down” planning and analysis. This trend is characterized by decision-making across the enterprise concerning the portfolio of projects, which the company should have, as well as the use of data mining technologies for a clear presentation of information in the portfolio (Siddiqui, 2015).
Nowadays, above mentioned approaches are actively used in logistics and supply chain management.
Critical Evaluation
Let’s analyze above mentioned researches about project triangle as the base in the project management as well as in the supply chain management.
After analyzing different researches, which are devoted to the project triangle and project management as a whole, and taking into account all points of view, it is possible to identify the key features that characterize the project and distinguish its normal business processes. The first of them is targeting the project. Every project involves the achievement of a particular outcome. In this case, the project manager needs a very good understanding of the intended result, the accurate description of its parameters and requirements for the quality of performance, when he sets goals. Then, it is necessary to prescribe very precise quality requirements. As a general rule, the project involves changing a particular system (or creating it from “zero”), and this change should lead to the planned results (or the target).
The second feature of the project is the limited time resources. Every project has a beginning and an end, in contrast to the routine activities of the organization, which have only the beginning. Certainly, an organization may once cease to exist, but this time is never planned and unknown. At the same time, the project is initially limited in time, and the completion of the project becomes a time, when the goal is reached. Project deadline can be set arbitrarily, given the complexity of the problem, financial capability and other factors (office renovation, opening a store), but may also depend on external circumstances (for example, the New Year holidays or other seasonal events). The basic time management tools are carefully designed schedule, reserves of time and the control points of the project.
The third feature is the limited funds. Every project requires material resources for its implementation. This can be real estate, equipment, materials, time and energy of people, who work on the project. All these resources have a monetary value, which is amenable to calculation. It should be noted that all the companies exist in the conditions of limited resources at any given time, and the project is no exception.
Funds for the project can be own funds, borrowings or investments, but in any case they are not unlimited. Each project will differ by the limited amount of money that can be invested, the bank will give a loan of not more than as a definite amount, and the investor would be willing to invest in the project a quite specific amount of cash. Therefore, it must proceed from the conditions of limited resources, while the project is planned.
If the duration (or time) of the project plan is reduced, it needs to increase the budget (costs), since the project manager will need to hire more resources to perform the same amount of work in less time. If the budget cannot be increased, it is necessary to reduce the content, because the available resources are not able to complete the entire planned scope of work in less time.
If the project manager needs to reduce the duration of the project, he must ensure that the overall quality of the project will not be intentionally reduced. For example, in a project for development of software such stages of testing and quality control are often carried out in the last instance; if the project duration is reduced, these tasks may be affected. The project manager should weigh the main benefits arising from the reduction of the duration of the project, on the one hand, and potential drawbacks from reducing the product quality – on the other hand.
When budget of the project is reduced, it may take more time, because the project manager cannot pay as much resources as it needs, or to pay for resources with the required efficiency. If the time cannot be increased, it is necessary to reduce the content, since fewer resources will not be able to complete the entire planned scope of work in the remaining time.
If the project manager wants to reduce the project budget, then he must consider classes of material resources. The material of a lower class will not necessarily have a lower quality. Until a class of material suitable for the intended use, it can be used. This approach is suitable for supply chain business processes.
The next step is to analyze the cost of human resources and equipment that will be used. It needs to answer the following question at this stage: can the project manager hire a less experienced people for less money to perform a simple task? However, reducing the cost of the project can lead to the result with lower quality. In this case, the project manager should consider the benefits versus the risks, which are formed from the cost reduction.
If the content of the project increases, it may take more time or resources to carry out additional work. When the content of the project increases after than the project is started, it is called an extension of the scope of the project. Changing the content during the project performance is not necessarily a bad sign.
Supply chain business processes are the most obvious example of the project triangle and its potential effectiveness. Supply chain helps to reduce costs inside by avoiding of erroneous decisions and contributes to the functional reliability of all business processes, making them more accurate. Competitiveness between supply systems in the context of “time” factor means that the most operational business entity wins in it.
The category of “time” is the absolute value in logistics. It does not allow different interpretations, such as the quality or price. Time in the supply chain may be different: to be zero, or multiple months or even years. Acceleration of business processes enhances the efficiency of product delivery; reduce the risk of its moral obsolescence, when the supply system is configured.
Also, the level of cost is an important factor for all business processes in the logistics supply. It is obvious that low costs ensure superiority in the market, which expresses itself in low prices and high trade margins, or in a combination of both factors. Many types of goods compete on that basis. Competitiveness of the supply system is provided by the resource saving and well organized procurement, cost-effective production, rational distribution of finished products and effective customer service.
Conclusion
In conclusion one can say that the project triangle illustrates the balancing process of constraints, since three sides of the triangle are connected, and the change of one hand can influence at least one of the other parties.
Time, cost and content are the three key elements of any project. Thus, the project manager should know how all three restrictions apply to projects, and be able to discuss it with stakeholders in order to work successfully.
References
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