A project can be thought to be the achievement of a specific goal which entails a number of activities and resources, and a definite start and end dates, and must be completed within this time frame of the start and end dates. Project management can thus be defined as the process of managing the activities involved in a project in order to achieve the goal of the project (Munns and Bjeirmi, 1996) or achieve project success. The terms project success and project management success are two different things. The measure of project success is with respect to the overall goals and objectives of a project while project management success is measures against performance measures such has the completion of a project within time, the cost of the project etc. (Anantatmula, 2014).
As an efficient tool to handle and manage new or complex activities, project management is more efficient than other traditional methods of management which includes functional divisions in a formal hierarchical organization in order to handle such situations (Avots, 1969). There are quite a lot of demands on organizations by the process of bringing new projects on stream and into markets. This development necessitates the need to introduce a different management technique that is different from the techniques hitherto used to manage day to day activities of operation. Project management thus becomes the all-important technique to achieve the management of the novelty or complexity introduced by a new project. According to Longman (2004), “once the project is under way, progress against these goals needs to be measured and communicated on an ongoing basis”.
Top Industries needing project management
According to a report by Sykes (2014), the following industries are listed as having very high demand for project managers, ranked from top to bottom; Energy, Healthcare, IT, Construction, Finance and Aerospace and Defense.
Energy: The energy sector produces the all-important energy needs of the world through the exploration of fossil fuels or the emerging renewable energy sources. This sector still needs to exploit its full potentials with the help of strategic thinkers in project managers.
Healthcare: Health insurance in the healthcare industry need to attract and retain their customers, and also need to improve efficiencies, improve customer experience and reduce costs creates a unique opportunity for project managers with IT skills to drive the sector.
IT: The dynamism of Information technology makes it an ever growing field. In the United States alone, the employment growth of technology to all other industries is three to one. This makes the marketplace of technology a complex one that requires strategic thinking and action to chart the course of players in this ecosystem.
Construction: The growth in the construction industry is expected to increase to USD 1.5 trillion by the year 2025, signifying over 70% increase. This growth is expected to be concentrated in India, United States and China making project managers with experience in construction have a lot of opportunities.
Finance: After the recent global economic crises, financial institutions are looking to carry out compliance projects for growth. The achievement of this goal requires the input of CFOs and project managers in taking strategic decisions and the business operations for all-round accountability for profit and loss and balance sheets.
Aerospace and Defense: There has been a reduction in the spending of the governments of Europe and the United States signaling a tougher time for the projects involving aerospace and defense. In view of this, defense companies need to operate more efficiently, while aviation companies also have to make gains in the industry. According to Dan Schellinger, a project management professional from the Dynamics Research Corporation of Andover, Massachusetts, USA, “there’s a strong need in this industry for project managers who can understand the strategic vision of the organization, identify key projects and align them with those strategic goals”.
Role of Project Managers
The roles of a project manager vary depending on the project to be undertaken and the scope. The overall role of the project manager is to ensure that a project is delivered on time, to the standard and quality specified and within budget. Projects are unique based on different complexity, unknowns, uncertainties (Anantatmula, 2014) and also on the goals involved in relation to the field of endeavour. The following are however some other functions of a project manager with respect to the delivery of a project;
He manages and leads the project team.
He does the recruitment of the staff that will work on the project based on the competencies needed to achieve the set goals.
He develops and maintains the detailed plan of the project.
He records and manages any issues that occur and escalates such issues where necessary.
He updates the senior management on the progress of the project and any such information that would be necessary.
Depending on the type of project, he interfaces with other project teams in collaboration with his own project team.
Some statistics on project management has it that only about 2.5% of companies successfully complete 100% of their projects while high-performing organizations successfully complete 89% of the project, low performers complete only about 36% of their projects.
With respect to IT projects, it is estimated that up to 75% of IT executives believe that their projects will fail from the start. Some of the factors that cause the disparity in completion rates of projects include the fact that barely half of project managers are certified and an estimated 39% of projects fail due to breakdown of communication.
REFERENCES
Anantatmula, V.S. (2010). Project Manager Leadership Role in Improving Project Performance. Engineering Management Journal, 22(1), Pp 13 – 22.
Avots, I. (1969). Why does project management fail? California Management Review, 12, Pp 77-82.
Longman, A. (2004). Project management: key tool for implementing strategy. Journal of Business Strategy, 25(5), Pp 54 – 60.
Sykes, K. (2014) Global Jobs Report: Hottest Industries, Highest Salaries https://www.pmi.org/learning/PM-Network/2014/global-jobs-report.aspx. Web. Accessess on 3 april, 2016.
Munns, A.K. and Bjeirmi, B.F.. (1996). The role of project management in achieving project success. International Journal of Project Management, 14(2), Pp 81 - 87.
