Leadership and Skills Planning and Control Management

Question: Discuss about the Leadership and Skills for Planning and Control Management. Answer: Introduction: A project management is a systematic and methodical approach to planning and controlling different project processes in an organization from its conception to its completion. As stated by Angelo et al. (2017), in project management, the project managers along with the team members of the project apply their knowledge, talents, skills, techniques and tools for meeting the project requirements. It involves planning, scheduling and directing the diverse resources of an organization towards completion of a specific task. The human and financial capitals are utilized systematically, which helps in defining the different goals and purposes of a project. These resources are utilized in the most beneficial way that helps in controlling quality and also ensures completion of the project in time and thereby maintain the quality standard. According to Archibald and Archibald (2016), the project management establishes diverse principles, policies and procedures that help in managing the project using different conceptions. While managing the projects, the managers employ several approaches and methods, which help in running the project and selecting the best approaches for its completion. Consequently, the project management implies integration of the time, cost, quality, human resources and communications in scheduling the project for its successful completion. Artto et al. (2016) opined that while the project managers need to have high levels of corporate visuals, which help in delivering certain tangible results within estimated time and budget. The project management is conducted methodically where the project goals are defined, and the steps are outlined for achieving the goals, identification of the resources and determining the time and budget for accomplishing the tasks. In this assignment, the different life cycles of project management will be discussed that comprises of initiation, planning, implementation and execution, project closedown and evaluation and lastly management of multiple projects in an organization. The assignment also discusses the importance and theory of project management in an organization. Life Cycle of Project Management The life cycle contains initiation, planning, implementation, execution and closure of the project. The projects contain temporary structure that varies according to their size as well as complexities. It is important to manage the projects so that each one of them gets completed within specified time and with provided resources (Biesenthal et al. 2015). The 1st phase of the project management life cycle is the Initiation stage, where the purpose of developing the project is discussed. As stated by Borsato (2014), in this stage, the project manager documents the objectives, aims, scope, purpose and the deliverables those will be produced in the project. The project manager conducts interview sessions with the patrons and understands their strategic vision and objectives. The aim and objectives of the projects are evaluated in this stage and verification with the customers is done. The documentation of the customers requirements and demands along with the organizations resources are done. Braglia and Frosolini (2014) opined that in this initiation stage, the details of the project are initiated that includes the technological usage, legal actions, resources and involvement of the stakeholders those are to be used. The potential risks and hindrances are also given concern at this stage, for taking appropriate remedial steps to avoid an d mitigate them. Moreover, the budget of the project is also estimated and aligned with the strategic goals of the organization. Burke and Barron (2014) mentioned that the project manager defines the roles and responsibilities of each of the team members as it helps in building a cohesive team. The leadership qualities of the project managers are also highlighted through the usage of their skills and talents in managing the team and assigning the responsible to the assigned members. An example can be taken from Tesco, where Self-Service-Checkout project has been taken to prevent the customers from standing in long queues. In the initiation stage of this project, Tesco understood the importance of having it in the organization (Ciliberti et al. 2016). The project manager claims it to be a simple and helpful method to the customers. The project manager had to distribute the responsibilities to the IT department for designing the product. Moreover, documentation of all the requirements, risks and hindrances that are likely to be faced at this stage had to be done. Project Planning Stage The 2nd phase of the life-cycle is the project planning stage, which implies planning and scheduling of the project accurately. As mentioned by Heagney (2016), in this stage, the infrastructure is established, which helps in effectively managing the success of the project. The assigned responsibilities are documented officially, and the communication and expectations are well presented in the project team. Along with this, the tracking system is established that helps in decomposing the high-level working structure into small divisions for the easy accomplishment of it. Heizer and Barry (2013) stated that in this stage, the project manager obtains staff members, assigns responsibilities and roles develop organizational charts and makes risk assessments. The project planning done by the project managers is dynamic in nature, which helps in identifying the deliverables and the activities for completing it. Moreover, the project manager also sequences the activities logically as per the requirement of the resources, time, cost and priorities. According to Joslin and Mller (2015), the project manager lists the information that is required for the successful completion of the project. This project planning helps in guiding to the execution of the project in a systematic and methodical way. The planning is done in done in such a way that the objectives of the project are achieved along with keeps track of the ongoing proceedings. An example can be cited from Tesco when the organizations project manager of Self-Service-Checkout project has documented all the resources that the project requires along with their availability. An accurate structure of the project is formulated, which helped the project manager in distributing the tasks and responsibilities among the team members and the time for accomplishing each of the tasks (Kerzner, 2013). The risks and the ways of mitigating the risks have also been documented in the phase along with sequencing the activities as per their requirement and needs. Implementation and Execution Stage The 3rd phase of the project life cycle is the Implementation and execution stage," where the documented and planned activities are put into action by the project manager and team members. Laporte and OConnor (2014) commented that in this phase, the project manager manages the entire team and also makes the best utilization of the available resources. The different visions and plans come into reality, and the project manager continues coordinating and directing the project resources in meeting the purposes of the project plan. It is the job of the project manager to direct as well as manage the individual activities of each of the team members. The team members under the guidance of the project manager produce the deliverables those are best suited for the project and as documented in the planning stage. As stated by Laporte et al. (2016), the project manager is also responsible for monitoring the activities of each of the team members working on the project. Any changes and modifica tions those came into the way of the project manager are considered, reviewed and implemented into the project. These changes and modifications are also documented in the project. Moreover, the project managers act as the leaders while managing the team through their regular monitoring and inspection for ensuring final deliverables of the customers. The dummy execution takes the place of the project before the evaluation phase takes over it (Love et al. 2014). In Tesco, the project manager manages the entire teams and their activities in the implementation and execution stage. In this stage, the project manager of Tesco focuses on the equipment, materials and resources those are necessary for constructing each of the deliverables of the project (Mahmood 2017). The activities of each of the project are documented, and the tracking of the team members' activities are also maintained. The documentation of the self-service-checkout software is done that helps in maintaining the tracks of the team performance. Project Closedown and Evaluation Stage The project closedown and evaluation phase is the last stage of a project lifecycle. As mentioned by Martinelli and Milosevic (2016), this evaluation of the project is carried out by an independent and unbiased person for reviewing the performance of the project. That individual is responsible for determining the deliverable of the project within specified time, given budget and allocated budget. In project closedown stage, the project manager is responsible for conducting the meetings, documenting the lessons learned, releasing the resources of the project and updating of the organizational processes. While closing the project, the project manager is responsible for scheduling the reviews and highlights of the project meetings through Gantt chart. According to Mir and Pinnington (2014), during the project closedown, the key stakeholders are invited to the meeting to discuss the project happenings while conducting it. The overall project objectives are reviewed along with the budget, the requirements of the project and the end deadlines are discussed in the meetings. Moreover, the evaluations of the risks are also discussed in the meetings that helped in gaining experiences, which can be later used in the future projects. In this stage, the overall project is handled by the customers, and the project manager waits for its feedback and reviews. Based on the reviews, changes and modifications are done (Oliveira et al. 2016). In Tesco, when the project of self-checkout was completed, it was handled over to the higher authorities. The higher authorities did a complete review to use and utilized the software in the real working environment to see the reviews and feedback of the customers. On seeing a positive response from the customers, this project of Tesco was claimed to be a success (Pinto and Winch, 2016). The overall usage of the technologies, resources and budget were documented by the project manager. The risks those were likely to be faced by the organization were also documented along with the solutions. Managing Multiple Projects Stage While managing multiple projects, the project manager has to take care of reaching the individual goals of each of the projects in scheduled time. As opined by Qin and Chen (2016), in completing the multiple projects, efficient and effective collaboration is necessary. The project manager needs to understand the potentiality and skills of the team members in handling multiple projects. An initial meeting is conducted by the project managers, which helps in discussing the different action courses for achieving the individual and team goals. The feedback and reviews of each of the team members are necessary to take, which helps in accomplishing the multiple projects that will be taken by the project manager with the team. Schwalbe (2015) commented that the project manager is also responsible for formulating the clear and precise plan for each of the projects those will be undertaken. The project manager devises actions plans for each of the team members. As per the task analysis, the t eam members are asked to split the tasks into different stages. The completion of each of the stages helps in completion of the individual works within specified time and budget. According to Shao et al. (2016), while managing the multiple projects, the project manager is also responsible for managing the resources, strict the deadlines and managing the document. The plans of the individual projects are jotted down individually without mixing the projects with one another and ending up in making a mess out of all the projects. The essentialities and necessities of each of the projects are chalked out accordingly that helps in allocating the resources conveniently. As mentioned by Svejvig and Andersen (2015), the project manager is responsible for tracking the on-going of each of the project along with usage of the tools that helps in executing the assigned tasks. The abilities of the team members are also documented along with their expertise and skills in the completion of the individual tasks within specified time. The handling of multiple projects may seem to be difficult initially, but proper breakdown and structuring of the activities help in the systema tic completion of the multiple projects. Theory of Project Management The project management theory is based on PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge). The purpose of this theory is in providing the adequate amount of work that is to be done, the unnecessary work that is not to be done and the work that delivers the purpose of the stated business. As mentioned by Artto et al. (2016), the project management is about managing tasks and works and decomposing the total work done in small chunks of the work. The PMBOK divides the entire processes of the project management into initiating, planning, execution, controlling as well as closing processes. These phases of the project develop a closed loop, where the planning processes are provided with an effective plan, which is realized by the executing processes. The planning helps in facilitating the entire processes of the organization. The scope planning and the output of the processes help in making up an input for the process of execution. Laporte et al. (2016) commented that the planning process do minates the scene that helps in executing the process as well as controlling the processes. The organization helps in consisting of the management part as well as effector part. The centralized creation, revision and implementation of the plans help in managing a strong connection with the management actions with that of the outcomes. According to Braglia and Frosolini (2014), the goals of the project management is flowing of the project towards the goals and objectives. The basic viewpoint is in eliminating the waste from the flow processes and the principles as the reduction of the lead time as well as reduction of the variability. The managerial prescription is different in reducing uncertainty and generation of values that helps in refining the framework of the quality movement. The value generation provides a good explanation of the third goal of the project management, which helps in delivering the business process (Laporte and OConnor, 2014). Importance of Project Management The project management is important for all the organizations as it helps in managing the different projects in the organization and their respective deliverables within specified time. As stated by Todorovi? et al. (2015), through project management, the resources are best utilized within the organization, which helps in carrying out the projects in a systematic and methodical way. The project management helps in identifying the requirements, objectives and aims of the customers that they claim from an organization. It helps in establishing clear, precise and achievable objectives, which are to be obtained by the project manager and the team members. The project management also helps in having a scientific and structured approach in the completion of the project. The objectives are successfully executed so that those are accomplished with the completion of the project. According to Too and Weaver (2014), the project management helps in organizing and planning the projects for taming the chaos that occurs when the projects are undertaken. It helps in controlling all the activities of the project. It is to be remembered that every project undertaken by the organizations have plenty of risks. The risks, being the fundamental part of the organization are to be controlled and managed for preventing its malicious nature that may negatively impact the organization. The project management identifies these potential risks and finds best probable solutions to the risks (Turner, 2014). Wang et al. (2017) opined that the project management plays an important role in managing the quality and quantity of the deliverables of a project. The project manager takes care of not producing any non-valuable and unimportant deliverables that add no value to the projects. Through project management, the integration of the projects is also done by the project manager. The projects are well integrated and assimilated with the ongoing business systems, processes and environment of the organization. Ciliberti et al. (2016) had commented that projects are subjected to the dynamic environment of the organization, which is not constant and are vulnerable to change. The issues that may appear in the project are identified and cleared through project management. The project management also ensures in capturing the project knowledge and managing it for the future use and references. As stated by Turner (2016), there are situations when the projects fail. But, with the help of project mana gement, the learning from the failures helps in improving the knowledge of the project manager and the team-mates. It helps in improvement of the quality of the future projects. As a result, the mistakes are never repeated within the organization, which leads to the success of the organization. Conclusion The overall project discusses the project management of the organizations. Through effective implementation of the project management, the various tasks and activities involved in the project are completed within specified time. The project management also helps in completion of the project work in specified time and with the help of the assigned resources. In this assignment, the different stages of the project management life cycle are described. It shows that every phase of it have certain unique features and actions, which are integrated and combined with the successful completion of the project. Moreover, the importance of the project management is also discussed in this context. Through project management, the team members along the project manager learn to identify and analyze the risks. It also helps in finding appropriate solutions to the risks, which could have hampered the completion of the project. Moreover, several knowledge and skills are also learned through project ma nagement process. The researcher has also discussed the theories related to project management like PMBOK that helps in understanding the amount of work that is to be done in the completion of a project and the unnecessary tasks those are not required for completion. It also helps in understanding the core processes those are necessary for the project to get accomplished. References Angelo, A.C.M., Saraiva, A.B., Clmaco, J.C.N., Infante, C.E. and Valle, R., 2017. Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis: Selection of a strategy for domestic food waste management in Rio de Janeiro.Journal of Cleaner Production,143, pp.744-756. Archibald, R.D. and Archibald, S., 2016.Leading and Managing Innovation: What Every Executive Team Must Know about Project, Program, and Portfolio Management. CRC Press. Artto, K., Ahola, T. and Vartiainen, V., 2016. From the front end of projects to the back end of operations: Managing projects for value creation throughout the system lifecycle.International Journal of Project Management,34(2), pp.258-270. Baldassarri, C., Mathieux, F., Ardente, F., Wehmann, C. and Deese, K., 2016. Integration of environmental aspects into RD inter-organizational projects management: application of a life cycle-based method to the development of innovative windows.Journal of Cleaner Production,112, pp.3388-3401. Biesenthal, C., Sankaran, S., Pitsis, T. and Clegg, S., 2015. Temporality in Organization Studies: Implications for Strategic Project Management.Open Economics and Management Journal,2(1). Borsato, M., 2014. Bridging the gap between product lifecycle management and sustainability in manufacturing through ontology building.Computers in Industry,65(2), pp.258-269. Braglia, M. and Frosolini, M., 2014. An integrated approach to implement project management information systems within the extended enterprise.International Journal of Project Management,32(1), pp.18-29. Burke, R. and Barron, S., 2014.Project management leadership: building creative teams. John Wiley Sons. Ciliberti, C., Jordaan, S.M., Smith, S.V. and Spatari, S., 2016. A life cycle perspective on land use and project economics of electricity from wind and anaerobic digestion.Energy Policy,89, pp.52-63. Heagney, J., 2016.Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Heizer, R. and Barry, R., 2013.Operation Management, Sustainability and Supply Chain management(Vol. 11). Pearson, UK. Joslin, R. and Mller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and project success in different project governance contexts.International Journal of Project Management,33(6), pp.1377-1392. Kerzner, H., 2013.Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley Sons. Laporte, C.Y. and OConnor, R.V., 2014, June. A systems process lifecycle standard for very small entities: Development and pilot trials. InEuropean Conference on Software Process Improvement(pp. 13-24). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Laporte, C.Y., Tremblay, N., Menaceur, J. and Poliquin, D., 2016, September. Implementing the new ISO/IEC 29110 systems engineering process standard in a small public transportation company. InEuropean Conference on Software Process Improvement(pp. 15-29). Springer International Publishing. Love, P.E., Matthews, J., Simpson, I., Hill, A. and Olatunji, O.A., 2014. A benefits realization management building information modeling framework for asset owners.Automation in construction,37, pp.1-10. Mahmood, Z. ed., 2017.Software Project Management for Distributed Computing: Life-Cycle Methods for Developing Scalable and Reliable Tools. Springer. Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016.Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. John Wiley Sons. Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success.International Journal of Project Management,32(2), pp.202-217. Oliveira, P.S.G.D., Silva, D.D., Silva, L.F.D., Lopes, M.D.S. and Helleno, A., 2016. Factors that influence product life cycle management to develop greener products in the mechanical industry.International Journal of Production Research,54(15), pp.4547-4567. Pinto, J.K. and Winch, G., 2016. The unsettling of settled science: The past and future of the management of projects.International Journal of Project Management,34(2), pp.237-245. Qin, F. and Chen, P., 2016. Knowledge Management of Project Team Based on Life Cycle Theory. InProceedings of the 6th International Asia Conference on Industrial Engineering and Management Innovation(pp. 645-652). Atlantis Press. Schwalbe, K., 2015.Information technology project management. Cengage Learning. Shao, Z., Feng, Y. and Hu, Q., 2016. Effectiveness of top management support in enterprise systems success: a contingency perspective of fit between leadership style and system life-cycle.European Journal of Information Systems,25(2), pp.131-153. Svejvig, P. and Andersen, P., 2015. Rethinking project management: A structured literature review with a critical look at the brave new world.International Journal of Project Management,33(2), pp.278-290. Todorovi?, M.L., Petrovi?, D.?., Mihi?, M.M., Obradovi?, V.L. and Bushuyev, S.D., 2015. Project success analysis framework: A knowledge-based approach in project management.International Journal of Project Management,33(4), pp.772-783. Too, E.G. and Weaver, P., 2014. The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance.International Journal of Project Management,32(8), pp.1382-1394. Turner, J.R., 2014.The handbook of project-based management(Vol. 92). New York, NY: McGraw-hill. Turner, R., 2016.Gower handbook of project management. Routledge. Wang, Z., Zhao, Y. and Ning, X., 2017. Integrated Information Management System of Building Materials Based on BIM Technology in Life Cycle Carbon Emissions. InProceedings of the 20th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate(pp. 345-353). Springer Singapore.