Summary of the Article The Impact of Project Management Methodologies on Project Performance
The article The Impact of Project Management Methodologies on Project Performance written by Shai Rozens focuses on several methodologies and their actual efficiency in the course of a project.
Recent studies in that field show that students and practitioners are aware of specific project management methodologies, yet the project failure level is quite high. The author describes a general project management course, which consists of lectures on how to structure the project, complete it in time, estimate resources, human resources and costs, to conduct the risk of failure, describes effective ways of communication and control. The experiment was conducted using the Project Management Trainer (PMT) – a simulator for one or more projects designed to educate in a dynamic and stochastic way. Each participant of the experiment dealt with two scenarios: easy and complicated one.
The results were analyzed using statistics methods. Students were divided in two groups: first one used predefined methodology and special tools, the second one did not have methodology. The results of the experiment showed that the prepared group demonstrated better performance in accordance with both measuring values: makespan and profit. This means that use of a systematic project management methodology improves the performance of project managers.
- Project managers deal with well-defined methodologies to achieve the goal;
- Success of project management course depends on many factors;
- Special programs and tools can evaluate the performance of the project;
- Awareness of project management methodology improves the performance of managers.
References
Rozens, S. (2011). The impact of project management methodologies on project performance. International Journal of Information Technology Project Management, 2 (2), 64-73.
Summary of the Article On the Dynamic Use of Project Performance and Schedule Risk Information during Project Tracking
The article On the Dynamic Use of Project Performance and Schedule Risk Information during Project Tracking written by Mario Vanhoucke is dedicated to monitoring of the project. Project scheduling and risk management are very important parts of any project. They help to achieve the goal and can be monitored by different tracking methods. The paper focuses on time measurement of the project performance. Two extreme methods were used during the experiment: top-down approach, which relies on the current situation of the project, and bottom-up approach, which uses the predefined risk analysis method. Each of the approaches proved its efficiency in different systems. The information needed to test the tracking methods was obtained using schedule risk analysis and earned value management (EVM) system. Level of detail and evaluation of effort needed are extremely important during project tracking. A top-down or project-based way of tracking relies on the signals from the top levels to correct the decision making processes at the lowest levels. A bottom-up or activity-based project tracking is based on information from lower levels, which is gathered from EVM. The experiment was done in a computational three-subtest way during Monte-Carlo simulation. The result of the experiment showed that top-down approach is effective serial structured networks and bottom-up method should be chosen for parallel structured networks.
Salient points:
- Project tracking is one of the vital steps in the course of the project;
- Sensitivity of the project is measured through schedule risk analysis and earned value management;
- Top-down and bottom-up tracking methods are fundamentally different from the point of view of the work breakdown structure;
- Top-down tracking method is better for networks with serial structure, while the bottom-up method is used for parallel structure of networks.
References
Vanhoucke, M. (2011). On the dynamic use of project performance and schedule risk information during project tracking. Omega, 39, 416-426.
Summary of the article The Effect of Integration on Project Delivery Team Effectiveness
The article titled The Effect of Integration on Project Delivery Team Effectiveness written by Bernard K. Baiden and Andrew D. F. Price describes the research of the integration impact on team performance and effectiveness. Project integration refers to collaboration of people and organizations with different backgrounds and needs but which want to achieve the same goal. In many studies the integration is considered to be an important means to improve the teamwork effectiveness. But the hypothesis does not have sufficient empirical proof. Therefore authors conducted several interviews with successful construction managers to find out the importance of integration to effectiveness of teams they were leading.
The teamwork effectiveness includes seven key components. There are different methods to measure it. One of them is the self-assessment matrix by Constructing Excellence. Authors want to investigate whether the integration improves the team effectiveness. To measure the level of integration the Team Integration Matrix was developed. The information from the interviews was put into the matrix and analyzed with the help of framework analysis. The results showed that in some cases high level of integration led to high teamwork effectiveness but in other cases there was no correlation. This means that integration can be used to improve teamwork process but it does not solve all the problems.
Salient points:
- Team integration is believed to improve teamwork effectiveness;
- Teams satisfy basic human needs and are considered as main building blocks by many companies;
- Teamwork effectiveness can be measured with the help of different methods;
- Integration helps to improve the effectiveness but it is not a panacea.
References
Baiden, B. K., & Price, A. D. F. (2011). The effect of integration on project delivery team effectiveness. International Journal of Project Management, 29, 129-136.
