Project Management

Project Management

Contents
1.0. 1.1. 2.0. 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Information Technology: An Overview: ........................................................................................ 3 Project Management ......................................................................................................................... 3 Need of the Project Management .................................................................................................. 4 It role in the Project Management: .............................................................................................. 6 Project Life Cycle ......................................................................................................................... 6 Initiation Phase...................................................................................................................... 7 Planning Phase ...................................................................................................................... 8 Execution of Project .............................................................................................................. 8 Project Specialities for the Execution of Project: ............................................................. 9 Project Disclosure ................................................................................................................. 9

2.3.1. 2.3.2. 2.3.3. 2.3.3.1. 2.3.4. 3.0. 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4. 3.5. 3.6. 3.7. 3.8. 4.0. 5.0. 6.0.

Web Project Life Cycle ................................................................................................................... 10 Initial Consultation...................................................................................................................... 11 Project Specification ................................................................................................................... 11 Site Architecture ......................................................................................................................... 11 Site Design Cycle ........................................................................................................................ 11 Content Collation ........................................................................................................................ 11 Project Development ................................................................................................................... 12 Testing Q&A ............................................................................................................................... 12 Site Launch ................................................................................................................................. 12 Lack of Project Management Concepts .......................................................................................... 12 Constraints of the Project ................................................................................................................ 12 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 13

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1.0. Introduction
Project Management is an art of providing the deliverables and services to the customers in an efficient way. There are various activities involved in the Project Management such as Identification of the requirement of the products, clearance and achievable objectives and balancing the demands of the customer with the resources available for the completion of the project. It is pretty obvious that in todays competitive market scenario where every day Organization face a new challenges; it is possible to develop without proper management. It is the dire need of the era to inculcate Project Management in their practices to gain better results and competitive advantage (Heyworth, 2002). There must be a framework and structure in an Organization of doing things and people must work according to that structure and framework to achieve objectives. This framework helps to do things in an efficient manner and to deal with the constraints like time, scope and quality. Organizations need a Project Management to control the environmental constraints. Moreover, project deliverables can be well managed and can be successfully determined. There can be chaos in Organizations and many problems can arise if projects are not managed properly. Therefore it would not be wrong to say that Project Management ensures the success of the project (Anon., 2004).

1.1.

Information Technology: An Overview:

Information technology has played an important role in the project management. Nothing is impossible in todays world without the information technology. Due to the IT, life has become very easy. Almost there are so many oprganizations which are using the information technology by intentionally or unintentionally. So that it would be easyt to say that without the information technology, proper starting and till completion of project is not possible.

2.0.

Project Management

Complex business environment and challenges faced by the Organization need to be addressed through proper planning and careful use of resources. It is possible through carefully managing the Project. This report will show that how it was possible for IBM through Project Management to successfully complete the IT project of designing a web page for a newly established Grocery retailer company. The company wanted a web page with all their product details, prices and
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order online system. It was a big task for the IT Project Manager to deal with the project in a little time and managing it successfully (Choudhuri, 2009). IT Manager followed the Project Management steps and initiated the project. Like many Organizations the IT Project Management team was not appointed full time and was only given the task for the present project. Retailer Company was newly established and wanted a comprehensive web page of their own stating the specifications and all the details of their products. There were many constraints in the project such as less time, scope and maintain the quality of the project as well. Though it was a learning experience in the end and IT Project Manager along with the team learned a lot. Rules and process of the Project Management was followed by the team.

2.1.

Need of the Project Management

It is essential for the Organizations to understand the need of the Project Management as it helps to make the tasks more effective and efficient. There are steps which are followed in the Project management which reduce the rate of risk and uncertainty in business activities. There are some rules in the Project Management such as: The project must be planned by the people performing the project and all the aspects of the projects must be considered. In the given Project all the details of the Project were considered carefully by the team. It was ensured the manager that all the important information regarding products, prices and their availability was given by the Company (Management, 2007). Second rule of the Project Management is that there must be some starting point of the project as to form where to start a project in a proper manner. All the details and specification must be organized in a manner to determine the starting point of the project. For IBM Project Manager with the given details of the company the first task was to think about the point of where the project was to be initiated. By following the rule it became easy for the team to arrange the tasks systematically (Jenkins, 2005). The third rule of the Project Management is to determine the Critical Path.

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Figure 1 Critical Path

Source: (Hanna, 2010) With the help of the Critical Path it becomes easy for the Project Manager to analyse the minimum time needed for the completion of the tasks. It helps to manage time in an efficient way. With the help of Critical maximum and minimum time of the tasks is analysed and those tasks are also identified by the Project Manager which could be delayed. For IBM Critical Path proved very useful for the team and manager as there was a time constraint so it helped them to manage time in an efficient manner. All the activities were given estimated time period. For instance the IT specialist coordinated with the data managers of the relevant project and fixed the time to arrange the data of specific products with details in a given time. The fourth rule of Project Management is to consider the scope Triangle. This is also known as the Iron Triangle of the Project Management (Campbel, 2011). Figure 2 Project Triangle

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Source: (SQA, 2007) This triangle is used to balance the three important aspects of the projects such as Scope of the project, its cost and time needed to be completed and available time for the project. These constraints have a great impact on the project and very important for the success of the project. For the IT Project Management it was very important to consider these constraints. The biggest constraint faced by the Company was a time constraint as very short time was available to complete the project and coordinate the activities. Retailer Company was newly established and there was no previous data available online. IT Project Management team had to start from the scratch.

2.2.

It role in the Project Management:

Information technology can be termed as hardawares and softwares which are basically use for the business performances. Hardware and softwares includes the computers, telecommunications, operating systems, mobiles and many other information system sources which provides the capability to perform the services in better way. Information technology in the context of project managent is providing the way like storing the data, properly formatting, classification, interpresting in a proper way and give the output in desireable format. IBM is based on this information technology.

2.3.

Project Life Cycle

Whenever a project is started in Project Management it undergoes a cyclic process and contains four phases. These four phases are Initiation Phase, Planning of the Project, Project Execution and Closure of the Project.
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It is essential that these four phases must be properly executed to ensure the success of the project. It is essential for the Project Manager to handle all the processes of the management in a methodological way and to implement them repeatedly to make the project successful. It is the duty of the manager to implement repeatedly test activities to reduce risk and provide the best quality to the customer. Developing a web page for the Grocery Company also underwent these four phases in a row. The four phases of the Project Management Cycle also depend on the nature, size and resources available for the project and demand of the client (Foundation, 2007).

Figure 3 Project Life cycle

Source: (Atkinson, 1999)

2.3.1.

Initiation Phase

Initiation Phase is the first stage of the project. In this phase need is identified and solutions are formulated. From the various options then the best option is selected and feasibility report is made for that. In the feasibility report all the aspects of the project are considered. After the analysing these aspects project are initiated. In the above Project all the aspects of the business of the company were carefully analysed by the team. Web developers and financial managers were appointed to estimate the cost of the project with the resources available (Government, 2011).

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2.3.2. Planning Phase

The second phase of the project is to plan the activities. There are various planning on a project at this stage as all aspects are taken into consideration. First of all there is Project Planning and all the activities, project framework dependencies are planned. Secondly, resources needed to complete the project are planned and resource planning is done. Finance is the blood of any project, without it is not possible to accomplish any task. Financial planning is very vital for any project it determines the careful usage of the resources. So all the costs are estimated and tasks are planned according to the cost incurred on them. Maintaining the quality of the project is essential. Lower quality will lead to the dissatisfaction of the customer and eventually a loss of the Project Manager. So a level of Quality is also essential to be maintained by the company. Moreover, communication is also ensured with the stakeholders. This helps to plan the activities according to the expectation and demands of the stakeholders. To maintain the input of resources from the supplier it is advisable to do procurement planning at this stage. After all the planning Project Manager passes on all the details to the Client for its acceptance as at this stage project is all ready to be implanted (Baars & Laurents, 2006). In the above project, this phase of planning was successfully followed by the company and it assisted the team in overall planning of the Project. Quality work as expected from the company and by following all the phases of planning it was possible for the company to meet the demands of the clients and stakeholders. For Instance people living in the UK are inclined towards online retailing and need efficient service from the retailers. With the communication planning with the stakeholders Project Manger was able to know consumer behaviour and demand of a particular product. Web page of the company was planned to be designed according to the demand of the client.
2.3.3. Execution of Project

After the comprehensive planning of the project next stage is the implementation of the project. At this stage all the planned activities of the project are executed in a

planned manner. It is ensured to perform the activities to get the deliverables of the project. It is reviewed by the management whether all the deliverable met the

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specification of the customer. Deliverables are given to the customers for the acceptance and project is closed at the next phase.
2.3.3.1. Project Specialities for the Execution of Project:

Wthere are some specialities which the information technology is providing to the business environment and making the business smooth. There are some specialist available who are performing the job to handle the complaints and maintaining the IT system propely in all the time of establishment of project.

(Source: Choudhuri, 2009) 2.3.4. Project Disclosure

At this stage final deliverable is given to the customer and all the documentations are closed at this point. Closure of the project is announced at this stage and
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supply of the resources is also terminated at this point. Review of the implementation is done at this stage to quantify the success of the project overall (Initiative, 2007).

3.0.

Web Project Life Cycle

Figure 4 Web Project Life cycle

Source: (Marant, 2009)

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As the Project was developed by the Software Company and web page was to be developed for the company so some additional steps were followed by the company. There are additional steps involved in the development of the web project life cycle.

3.1.

Initial Consultation

As Project Management team was assigned to design a web page for the Retailer Company. At this stage manager discussed various issues with the client. Many aspects related to the Project were discussed with the client to frame the work plan according to their specifications. This Initial consultation made it clear to web developers hired the team as to how design the site.

3.2.

Project Specification

Specifications of the project are designed at this stage and web page is designed at this stage. All the stakeholders needs and expectations are kept in mind and planning is done according to it.

3.3.

Site Architecture

With the specification given by the client site architecture is framed at this stage. Web developers and programmers inculcate all the details given by the company and according to the need of the client site is made.

3.4.

Site Design Cycle

There are various designs of web pages and sites. Design of the site depends upon the nature f the business and clients need. In some businesses like Fashion site more colourful sites are suitable whereas in service websites like Bank and educational websites are different in outlook than of sale site. In the above case Company is a new and want to attract more and more customers so the site was supposed to be colourful and attractive in order to get more customers.

3.5.

Content Collation

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Content about the company is added at this stage. In the above stated project, Project Management team added all the details and specifications of the project. The details of the product ready for sale online with their images were added at this stage. Moreover, special discount details on some products and special offers were also added on the website.

3.6.

Project Development

On this stage Project Development is complete and is shown to the customer for checking. Any changes recommended by the client are made.

3.7.

Testing Q&A

A test is run by running the site on the testing base and to check its functioning. This is not the launch stage but just a pilot testing by the team to ensure good quality of the final product or service.

3.8.

Site Launch

At the last stage web site after all the changes and testing is now ready for launch and being launched by the company.

4.0.

Lack of Project Management Concepts

Though there was no lack of Project Management Concepts in the above project. IBM is a certified company and had been doing previously projects like this. Company was satisfied with the performance of the IT Project Management and appreciated its services. Proper execution of the Project Management rules and processes made the project success possible. Company would not have been able to show satisfactory results if Project Management would not have worked efficiently. There have been cases of failure of the projects due to not following the proper methodology. By working on the Project Management company was in a better position to plan for the project. Moreover, time was properly managed along with the quality service.

5.0.

Constraints of the Project

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There was time constraint in the project. Project Management team was not provided with the sufficient time for the completion of the project. Project Manager had to deal with this constraint and provide quality service to the client. Experienced management and proper execution of Project management principles made it possible for IBM Project Management team to execute the project and provide the deliverable to the retailer company on time. This constraint was overcome by the use of Project Management Knowledge area.

6.0.

Conclusion

With the successful launch of the website of the Retailing Company of UK, it is clear that to deal with the challenges faced by the organization in present era it is important that companies must use the knowledge of Project Management skilfully. Now days many people have chosen this as a profession. It has enabled the companies to get the expertise of various professionals and get the best service. It saves time and resources of the client and Project Management team because all the aspects are pondered time and again to gain excellence every aspect is managed carefully and risk is reduced. IBM IT project management team worked efficiently to provide a good quality service to the client. All the rules and steps of Project management were properly executed by the team. It helped the team to get better results and made its flow of work smooth and error free. Web developers and IT experts were also involved. Expertise from business project developers was taken and cost was minimized by dealing with the time constraint in an efficient manner. Without the use of Project management successful launch of the project would not have possible. Company was new and many areas in the web development needed expertise. Without efficient planning it would not have been possible for the team to complete the project and maintain the quality as well.

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References

Anon., 2004. An Introduction to Project Management. Project Management Institute. Atkinson, R., 1999. Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept othersuccess criteria. International Journal of Project Management, 17(6), pp.337-42. Baars, W. & Laurents, S., 2006. Project Management Handbook. Campbel, K., 2011. Project Management Framework. Choudhuri, N.M., 2009. Project Management Fundamentals. ITC Infotech. Foundation, C.-O., 2007. Guidelines and Procedures for Project Management. Coin Foundation. Government, T., 2011. Project Management Guidelines. Department of Premier and Cabinet. Hanna, 2010. Hanna Blog. [Online] Available at: http://hannarqpaulson.blogspot.com/2010/05/critical-path-analysis_21.html [Accessed 28 Feb 2013]. Heyworth, F., 2002. A guide to project management. European Centre for Modern Languages.

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Initiative, D.L., 2007. Project Management General guidelines for digital projects. Jenkins, N., 2005. A Project Management Primer. Management, P., 2007. Project Management. Bureau of Energy Efficiency . Marant, L., 2009. Web Site Project Life Cycle. SQA, 2007. Problems faced by the Project Managers. [Online] Available at: http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/ProjMan03CD/page_13.htm [Accessed 28 Feb 2013].

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