Which Of The Following Is An Area Of Career Opportunities In Financialã¢â‚¬â€¹ Services?
Master Body
ii. Project Direction Overview
The starting point in discussing how projects should be properly managed is to offset sympathise what a project is and, just as importantly, what it is non.
People have been undertaking projects since the earliest days of organized human action. The hunting parties of our prehistoric ancestors were projects, for example; they were temporary undertakings directed at the goal of obtaining meat for the community. Big complex projects have also been with united states for a long time. The pyramids and the Not bad Wall of People's republic of china were in their day of roughly the same dimensions every bit the Apollo project to send men to the moon. We apply the term "project" frequently in our daily conversations. A husband, for example may tell his wife, "My main project for this weekend is to straighten out the garage." Going hunting, edifice pyramids, and fixing faucets all share certain features that make them projects.
Project Attributes
A project has distinctive attributes that distinguish it from ongoing work or business concern operations. Projects are temporary in nature. They are non an everyday business procedure and have definitive start dates and end dates. This feature is important considering a large office of the project endeavor is defended to ensuring that the project is completed at the appointed time. To do this, schedules are created showing when tasks should begin and end. Projects tin can last minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.
Projects exist to bring about a product or service that hasn't existed before. In this sense, a project is unique. Unique means that this is new; this has never been washed before. Maybe it'south been done in a very like fashion before merely never exactly in this mode. For case, Ford Motor Visitor is in the business of designing and assembling cars. Each model that Ford designs and produces tin can be considered a project. The models differ from each other in their features and are marketed to people with various needs. An SUV serves a different purpose and clientele than a luxury car. The design and marketing of these two models are unique projects. However, the actual associates of the cars is considered an operation (i.east., a repetitive procedure that is followed for most makes and models).
In contrast with projects, operations are ongoing and repetitive. They involve work that is continuous without an ending engagement and with the same processes repeated to produce the same results. The purpose of operations is to keep the organization functioning while the purpose of a project is to come across its goals and conclude. Therefore, operations are ongoing while projects are unique and temporary.
A projection is completed when its goals and objectives are accomplished. It is these goals that drive the project, and all the planning and implementation efforts undertaken to achieve them. Sometimes projects cease when information technology is determined that the goals and objectives cannot be accomplished or when the product or service of the project is no longer needed and the project is cancelled.
Definition of a Project
There are many written definitions of a projection. All of them contain the key elements described above. For those looking for a formal definition of a project, the Projection Management Establish (PMI) defines a projection as a temporary try undertaken to create a unique production, service, or result. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite showtime and finish. The end is reached when the project'southward objectives have been achieved or when the project is terminated because its objectives will non or cannot exist met, or when the demand for the projection no longer exists.
Project Characteristics
When because whether or non you have a project on your hands, there are some things to go along in mind. First, is it a project or an ongoing operation? Second, if it is a project, who are the stakeholders? And third, what characteristics distinguish this endeavor equally a projection?
Projects have several characteristics:
- Projects are unique.
- Projects are temporary in nature and take a definite beginning and ending date.
- Projects are completed when the project goals are achieved or information technology'southward adamant the project is no longer viable.
A successful project is i that meets or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders.
Consider the following scenario: The vice-president (VP) of marketing approaches you lot with a fabled idea. (Obviously information technology must be "fabulous" considering he thought of it.) He wants to ready kiosks in local grocery stores as mini-offices. These offices will offering customers the power to sign up for automobile and home insurance services besides as brand their bill payments. He believes that the exposure in grocery stores will increase awareness of the company'southward offerings. He told y'all that senior management has already cleared the project, and he'll dedicate every bit many resources to this as he can. He wants the new kiosks in identify in 12 selected stores in a major city past the end of the year. Finally, he has assigned you to head upwards this projection.
Your offset question should be, "Is it a projection?" This may seem elementary, simply disruptive projects with ongoing operations happens often. Projects are temporary in nature, have definite start and end dates, consequence in the creation of a unique product or service, and are completed when their goals and objectives have been met and signed off by the stakeholders.
Using these criteria, permit's examine the assignment from the VP of marketing to determine if information technology is a project:
- Is information technology unique? Yes, considering the kiosks don't be in the local grocery stores. This is a new way of offering the company'southward services to its customer base. While the service the company is offer isn't new, the way it is presenting its services is.
- Does the production have a limited timeframe? Yes, the start date of this project is today, and the end date is the end of next year. It is a temporary attempt.
- Is there a way to decide when the project is completed? Yes, the kiosks will be installed and the services will exist offered from them. Once all the kiosks are installed and operating, the projection will come to a close.
- Is there a way to determine stakeholder satisfaction? Yes, the expectations of the stakeholders volition exist documented in the grade of requirements during the planning processes. These requirements volition be compared to the finished product to determine if it meets the expectations of the stakeholder.
If the respond is yeah to all these questions, then we accept a project.
The Process of Projection Management
You've determined that you have a project. What now? The notes you scribbled down on the back of the napkin at lunch are a starting time, but not exactly good project management practice. Too oftentimes, organizations follow Nike's advice when information technology comes to managing projects when they "just practice it." An consignment is made, and the project team members jump directly into the development of the product or service requested. In the end, the delivered product doesn't meet the expectations of the client. Unfortunately, many projects follow this poorly synthetic path, and that is a primary contributor to a big percentage of projects not coming together their original objectives, as defined by performance, schedule, and upkeep.
In the United States, more than $250 billion is spent each year on information engineering science (It) application development in approximately 175,000 projects. The Standish Grouping (a Boston-based leader in projection and value performance enquiry) released the summary version of their 2009 Chaos Study that tracks project failure rates across a broad range of companies and industries (Figure ii.1).
Jim Johnson, chairman of the Standish Grouping, has stated that "this year's results testify a marked decrease in project success rates, with 32% of all projects succeeding which are delivered on time, on budget, with required features and functions, 44% were challenged-which are late, over budget, and/or with less than the required features and functions and 24% failed which are cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used."
When are companies going to cease wasting billions of dollars on failed projects? The vast majority of this waste product is completely avoidable: simply get the right business organization needs (requirements) understood early in the process and ensure that project management techniques are applied and followed, and the projection activities are monitored.
Applying good project management discipline is the style to assist reduce the risks. Having skillful project management skills does not completely eliminate problems, risks, or surprises. The value of skilful project management is that you have standard processes in identify to deal with all contingencies.
Project direction is the application of cognition, skills, tools, and techniques practical to project activities in club to meet the project requirements. Projection management is a process that includes planning, putting the project programme into action, and measuring progress and performance.
Managing a project includes identifying your project'southward requirements and writing down what everyone needs from the project. What are the objectives for your project? When anybody understands the goal, information technology'south much easier to go on them all on the right path. Make sure yous gear up goals that everyone agrees on to avoid team conflicts later on. Understanding and addressing the needs of everyone afflicted by the projection means the end result of your project is far more likely to satisfy your stakeholders. Last but not least, as project manager, yous will also exist balancing the many competing project constraints.
On any project, you will have a number of project constraints that are competing for your attention. They are toll, scope, quality, risk, resources, and time.
- Cost is the budget approved for the project including all necessary expenses needed to deliver the projection. Within organizations, project managers take to rest between not running out of coin and not underspending because many projects receive funds or grants that take contract clauses with a "use it or lose it" arroyo to project funds. Poorly executed upkeep plans tin can issue in a terminal-minute blitz to spend the allocated funds. For virtually all projects, cost is ultimately a limiting constraint; few projects tin go over budget without eventually requiring a corrective action.
- Scope is what the project is trying to achieve. It entails all the work involved in delivering the project outcomes and the processes used to produce them. Information technology is the reason and the purpose of the project.
- Quality is a combination of the standards and criteria to which the project'south products must be delivered for them to perform effectively. The product must perform to provide the functionality expected, solve the identified problem, and deliver the do good and value expected. It must also meet other functioning requirements, or service levels, such as availability, reliability, and maintainability, and have adequate finish and polish. Quality on a project is controlled through quality assurance (QA), which is the procedure of evaluating overall project performance on a regular basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards.
- Risk is divers by potential external events that volition take a negative bear on on your projection if they occur. Risk refers to the combination of the probability the event will occur and the bear upon on the project if the event occurs. If the combination of the probability of the occurrence and the bear on on the projection is too loftier, you should identify the potential event as a gamble and put a proactive plan in place to manage the take a chance.
- Resources are required to deport out the projection tasks. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or annihilation else capable of definition (usually other than labour) required for the completion of a projection activeness.
- Time is divers every bit the fourth dimension to complete the project. Time is often the about frequent project oversight in developing projects. This is reflected in missed deadlines and incomplete deliverables. Proper command of the schedule requires the conscientious identification of tasks to be performed and accurate estimations of their durations, the sequence in which they are going to exist done, and how people and other resources are to exist allocated. Any schedule should accept into account vacations and holidays.
You may have heard of the term "triple constraint," which traditionally consisted of only time, cost, and telescopic. These are the master competing project constraints that yous accept to be almost aware of. The triple constraint is illustrated in the form of a triangle to visualize the project work and see the relationship betwixt the scope/quality, schedule/fourth dimension, and cost/resources (Figure 2.ii). In this triangle, each side represents ane of the constraints (or related constraints) wherein any changes to whatsoever one side crusade a alter in the other sides. The all-time projects have a perfectly balanced triangle. Maintaining this balance is difficult because projects are decumbent to alter. For instance, if scope increases, cost and time may increase disproportionately. Alternatively, if the amount of money you have for your project decreases, y'all may be able to do equally much, but your fourth dimension may increase.
Your project may take additional constraints that you must face, and as the projection manager, you lot have to balance the needs of these constraints confronting the needs of the stakeholders and your project goals. For instance, if your sponsor wants to add functionality to the original scope, you lot will very probable need more money to terminate the project, or if they cut the budget, you will have to reduce the quality of your scope, and if you don't get the appropriate resources to work on your project tasks, you will have to extend your schedule considering the resources you have take much longer to finish the work.
You get the idea; the constraints are all dependent on each other. Think of all of these constraints as the classic carnival game of Whac-a-mole (Figure 2.3). Each time you endeavour to push i mole back in the hole, some other ane pops out. The best advice is to rely on your projection team to keep these moles in identify.
Here is an example of a project that cut quality considering the project costs were fixed. The P-36 oil platform (Effigy 2.iv) was the largest footing production platform in the world capable of processing 180,000 barrels of oil per day and 5.two one thousand thousand cubic metres of gas per day. Located in the Roncador Field, Campos Bowl, Brazil, the P-36 was operated by Petrobras.
In March 2001, the P-36 was producing effectually 84,000 barrels of oil and i.iii million cubic metres of gas per twenty-four hours when it became destabilized by two explosions and subsequently sank in three,900 feet of water with 1,650 short tons of crude oil remaining on lath, killing 11 people. The sinking is attributed to a complete failure in quality balls, and pressure level for increased product led to corners being cut on rubber procedures. Information technology is listed equally 1 of the most expensive accidents with a price tag of $515,000,000.
The following quotes are from a Petrobras executive, citing the benefits of cutting quality assurance and inspection costs on the project.
"Petrobras has established new global benchmarks for the generation of exceptional shareholder wealth through an aggressive and innovative program of cost cutting on its P36 production facility."
"Conventional constraints have been successfully challenged and replaced with new paradigms appropriate to the globalized corporate market place place."
"Emptying of these unnecessary straitjackets has empowered the project's suppliers and contractors to propose highly economic solutions, with the win-win bonus of enhanced profitability margins for themselves."
"The P36 platform shows the shape of things to come in the unregulated global market economy of the 21st century."
The dynamic trade-offs between the projection constraint values have been humorously and accurately described in Figure 2.5.
Project Management Expertise
In club for you, as the project director, to manage the competing projection constraints and the projection as a whole, at that place are some areas of expertise you should bring to the project team (Figure 2.11). They are knowledge of the application area and the standards and regulations in your industry, understanding of the projection environment, general management knowledge and skills, and interpersonal skills. It should be noted that industry expertise is non in a certain field but the expertise to run the project. So while noesis of the type of manufacture is important, you lot volition have a project squad supporting you in this effort. For instance, if you are managing a projection that is building an oil platform, you would not be expected to have a detailed understanding of the engineering since your squad will have mechanical and civil engineers who will provide the advisable expertise; however, it would definitely help if yous understood this type of work.
Permit's have a look at each of these areas in more particular.
Application noesis
By standards, nosotros mean guidelines or preferred approaches that are not necessarily mandatory. In contrast, when referring to regulations we mean mandatory rules that must be followed, such as authorities-imposed requirements through laws. It should go without saying that as a professional person, y'all're required to follow all applicable laws and rules that apply to your industry, organization, or project. Every industry has standards and regulations. Knowing which ones affect your projection before yous brainstorm work will not but aid the project to unfold smoothly, just will also permit for constructive risk analysis.
Some projects require specific skills in certain application areas. Application areas are made up of categories of projects that have common elements. They can be divers by industry group (pharmaceutical, financial, etc.), section (bookkeeping, marketing, legal, etc.), technology (software evolution, engineering, etc), or direction specialties (procurement, research and development, etc.). These application areas are unremarkably concerned with disciplines, regulations, and the specific needs of the project, the client, or the industry. For case, most government agencies take specific procurement rules that apply to their projects that wouldn't be applicable in the structure industry. The pharmaceutical industry is interested in regulations prepare forth past government regulators, whereas the automotive industry has little or no business concern for either of these types of regulations. You need to stay up-to-engagement regarding your industry then that you can apply your knowledge effectively. Today's fast-paced advances can leave you behind adequately rapidly if you don't stay beside of electric current trends.
Having some level of experience in the application surface area you're working in volition give you an reward when it comes to projection management. While yous can call in experts who have the application area knowledge, it doesn't hurt for you to understand the specific aspects of the application areas of your projection.
Agreement the Project Environment
There are many factors that need to exist understood within your project surroundings (Figure 2.vii). At one level, you need to think in terms of the cultural and social environments (i.e., people, demographics, and education). The international and political environment is where you need to understand about dissimilar countries' cultural influences. Then we move to the physical environment; hither nosotros call back virtually time zones. Think nigh different countries and how differently your project will exist executed whether it is just in your country or if information technology involves an international projection team that is distributed throughout the world in five different countries.
Of all the factors, the physical ones are the easiest to sympathise, and it is the cultural and international factors that are often misunderstood or ignored. How we deal with clients, customers, or project members from other countries can be critical to the success of the project. For example, the culture of the United states of america values accomplishments and individualism. Americans tend to exist informal and call each other by first names, even if having just met. Europeans tend to be more formal, using surnames instead of first names in a business setting, even if they know each other well. In addition, their advice manner is more than formal than in the United States, and while they tend to value individualism, they also value history, bureaucracy, and loyalty. The Japanese, on the other hand, tend to communicate indirectly and consider themselves role of a group, not equally individuals. The Japanese value hard work and success, as nearly of us do.
How a product is received can exist very dependent on the international cultural differences. For example, in the 1990s, when many big American and European telecommunications companies were cultivating new markets in Asia, their customer's cultural differences often produced unexpected situations. Western companies planned their telephone systems to work the same mode in Asia equally they did in Europe and the Us. Just the protocol of chat was different. Telephone call-waiting, a popular feature in the Westward, is considered impolite in some parts of Asia. This cultural blunder could have been avoided had the team captured the project environment requirements and involved the client.
It is ofttimes the simplest things that tin cause problem since, unsurprisingly, in dissimilar countries, people do things differently. One of the almost notorious examples of this is too one of the most simple: date formats. What solar day and month is ii/8/2009? Of course it depends where you come from; in North America it is Feb 8th while in Europe (and much of the residuum of the globe) it is 2nd Baronial. Clearly, when schedules and deadlines are existence defined it is important that anybody is clear on the format used.
The diversity of practices and cultures and its impact on products in full general and on software in particular goes well beyond the date outcome. You may be managing a project to create a new website for a visitor that sells products worldwide. There are language and presentation style issues to have into consideration; converting the site into different languages isn't enough. It is obvious that you need to ensure the translation is correct; notwithstanding, the presentation layer will have its own fix of requirements for different cultures. The left side of a website may exist the first focus of attention for a Canadian; the right side would be the initial focus for anyone from the Middle Eastward, as both Standard arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left. Colors besides take dissimilar meanings in different cultures. White, which is a sign of purity in N America (east.chiliad., a helpmate's wedding dress), and thus would exist a favoured groundwork colour in North America, signifies expiry in Japan (e.grand., a burial shroud). Table 2.1 summarizes unlike meanings of mutual colours.
| Color | United states of america | China | Nihon | Arab republic of egypt | French republic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby-red | Danger, stop | Happiness | Acrimony, danger | Death | Elite |
| Blue | Sadness, melancholy | Heavens, clouds | Villainy | Virtue, faith, truth | Freedom, peace |
| Light-green | Novice, apprentice | Ming dynasty, heavens | Future, youth, free energy | Fertility, strength | Misdeed |
| Yellow | Cowardice | Birth, wealth | Grace, dignity | Happiness, prosperity | Temporary |
| White | Purity | Expiry, purity | Expiry | Joy | Naturality |
Project managers in multicultural projects must capeesh the culture dimensions and try to learn relevant customs, courtesies, and business protocols before taking responsibility for managing an international project. A project managing director must accept into consideration these various cultural influences and how they may affect the project's completion, schedule, telescopic, and cost.
Management Cognition and Skills
As the project managing director, you have to rely on your project management knowledge and your general management skills. Here, we are thinking of items like your ability to programme the projection, execute information technology properly, and of class control it and bring information technology to a successful decision, along with your ability to guide the projection team to reach project objectives and balance projection constraints.
There is more to project direction than just getting the work done. Inherent in the procedure of project management are the general management skills that allow the project manager to complete the projection with some level of efficiency and command. In some respects, managing a project is like to running a business: at that place are risk and rewards, finance and bookkeeping activities, human resource issues, fourth dimension management, stress management, and a purpose for the project to exist. General management skills are needed in every project.
Interpersonal Skills
Last but not least you besides have to bring the ability into the project to manage personal relationships and deal with personnel problems as they ascend. Here were talking about your interpersonal skills as shown in Figure 2.viii.
Communication
Project managers spend ninety% of their time communicating. Therefore they must exist proficient communicators, promoting clear, unambiguous exchange of information. Equally a projection director, it is your task to keep a number of people well informed. It is essential that your projection staff know what is expected of them: what they have to do, when they have to practise it, and what budget and time constraints and quality specifications they are working toward. If project staff members do not know what their tasks are, or how to attain them, so the entire project will grind to a halt. If you exercise not know what the projection staff is (or frequently is non) doing, and then yous will be unable to monitor project progress. Finally, if you are uncertain of what the customer expects of you, then the project volition non even get off the ground. Project advice tin thus exist summed up equally knowing "who needs what information and when" and making sure they accept it.
All projects require sound communication plans, but not all projects will have the same types of communication or the same methods for distributing the information. For case, will data exist distributed via mail or electronic mail, is there a shared website, or are face up-to-face meetings required? The communication management program documents how the communication needs of the stakeholders will exist met, including the types of information that will be communicated, who volition communicate them, and who will receive them; the methods used to communicate; the timing and frequency of communication; the method for updating the programme equally the projection progresses, including the escalation procedure; and a glossary of common terms.
Influence
Project management is well-nigh getting things done. Every organization is different in its policies, modes of operations, and underlying culture. In that location are political alliances, differing motivations, conflicting interests, and power struggles. A project manager must understand all of the unspoken influences at work within an organization.
Leadership
Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire individuals to work toward expected results. Leaders inspire vision and rally people effectually mutual goals. A practiced project managing director can motivate and inspire the project squad to come across the vision and value of the project. The projection manager as a leader tin inspire the project team to find a solution to overcome perceived obstacles to become the work washed.
Motivation
Motivation helps people work more efficiently and produce better results. Motivation is a constant process that the project manager must guide to help the team movement toward completion with passion and a profound reason to complete the work. Motivating the team is accomplished by using a diverseness of team-building techniques and exercises. Team building is simply getting a diverse grouping of people to work together in the most efficient and effective way possible. This may involve management events equally well as private deportment designed to improve team performance.
Recognition and rewards are an of import part of team motivations. They are formal ways of recognizing and promoting desirable behaviour and are most effective when carried out past the direction team and the project manager. Consider individual preferences and cultural differences when using rewards and recognition. Some people don't like to be recognized in front of a group; others thrive on it.
Negotiation
Project managers must negotiate for the good of the project. In whatsoever projection, the project manager, the project sponsor, and the projection team volition accept to negotiate with stakeholders, vendors, and customers to reach a level of agreement adequate to all parties involved in the negotiation process.
Problem Solving
Trouble solving is the ability to understand the heart of a trouble, wait for a viable solution, and then make a conclusion to implement that solution. The starting point for problem solving is problem definition. Problem definition is the ability to empathize the cause and effect of the problem; this centres on root-cause assay. If a project manager treats only the symptoms of a problem rather than its cause, the symptoms will perpetuate and continue through the projection life. Fifty-fifty worse, treating a symptom may result in a greater trouble. For example, increasing the ampere rating of a fuse in your car considering the former one keeps blowing does not solve the problem of an electric curt that could event in a fire. Root-cause assay looks beyond the immediate symptoms to the cause of the symptoms, which and then affords opportunities for solutions. In one case the root of a trouble has been identified, a determination must be fabricated to finer accost the problem.
Solutions can exist presented from vendors, the projection squad, the project manager, or various stakeholders. A feasible solution focuses on more than but the problem; it looks at the cause and outcome of the solution itself. In addition, a timely decision is needed or the window of opportunity may pass and then a new decision will be needed to address the problem. As in most cases, the worst matter you tin can exercise is nothing.
All of these interpersonal skills volition exist used in all areas of project management. Start practicing at present because information technology's guaranteed that y'all'll need these skills on your side by side project.
Image Descriptions
Effigy ii.5 image description: The sign says, "We tin can practise good, quick, and cheap work. You can have any two but not all iii. ane. Good, quick work won't be cheap. ii. Skilful, inexpensive work won't be quick. 3. Quick, cheap piece of work won't be proficient." [Return to Effigy ii.5]
Text Attributions
- This affiliate of Projection Management is a derivative of Project Direction past Merrie Barron and Andrew Barron. © CC BY (Attribution).
- Table 2.1: Adapted from P. Russo and S. Boor, How Fluent is Your Interface? Designing for International Users, Proceedings of the INTERACT '93 and CHI '93, Clan for Computing Mechanism, Inc. (1993). Table from Barron & Barron Project Direction for Scientists and Engineers, Source: Projection Management for Scientists and Engineers by Merrie Barron; Andrew R. Barron
Source: https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-2-what-is-a-project-project-management/
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