banner



Which Action Could Result In A Hearing Being Ordered By The Department Of Financial Services

Principal Body

2. Project Management Overview

The starting betoken in discussing how projects should be properly managed is to get-go understand what a project is and, just as chiefly, 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 case; they were temporary undertakings directed at the goal of obtaining meat for the community. Large complex projects take also been with u.s. for a long time. The pyramids and the Great Wall of People's republic of china were in their day of roughly the aforementioned dimensions as the Apollo project to send men to the moon. We use the term "project" frequently in our daily conversations. A hubby, for example may tell his wife, "My main projection for this weekend is to straighten out the garage." Going hunting, building pyramids, and fixing faucets all share sure features that make them projects.

Project Attributes

A project has distinctive attributes that distinguish it from ongoing work or business operations. Projects are temporary in nature. They are not an everyday business process and have definitive beginning dates and end dates. This characteristic is of import because a large part of the projection endeavor is dedicated 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 can terminal 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 earlier. Maybe information technology'due south been done in a very like way earlier just never exactly in this way. For case, Ford Motor Company is in the concern of designing and assembling cars. Each model that Ford designs and produces 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 auto. The pattern and marketing of these two models are unique projects. However, the actual assembly of the cars is considered an operation (i.e., a repetitive procedure that is followed for near makes and models).

In contrast with projects, operations are ongoing and repetitive. They involve work that is continuous without an ending date and with the same processes repeated to produce the aforementioned results. The purpose of operations is to keep the organisation operation while the purpose of a project is to meet its goals and conclude. Therefore, operations are ongoing while projects are unique and temporary.

A project is completed when its goals and objectives are accomplished. It is these goals that bulldoze the project, and all the planning and implementation efforts undertaken to attain them. Sometimes projects end when it is determined that the goals and objectives cannot be accomplished or when the product or service of the projection is no longer needed and the project is cancelled.

Definition of a Project

In that location are many written definitions of a project. All of them contain the primal elements described above. For those looking for a formal definition of a project, the Project Management Constitute (PMI) defines a projection as a temporary effort undertaken to create a unique production, service, or consequence. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite showtime and end. The cease is reached when the project's objectives take been achieved or when the projection is terminated because its objectives will not or cannot be met, or when the need for the project no longer exists.

Projection Characteristics

When because whether or not you have a project on your hands, at that place are some things to go on in mind. Get-go, is it a project or an ongoing operation? Second, if information technology is a project, who are the stakeholders? And third, what characteristics distinguish this endeavour as a project?

Projects have several characteristics:

  • Projects are unique.
  • Projects are temporary in nature and have a definite beginning and ending date.
  • Projects are completed when the project goals are accomplished or it's determined 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 with a fabulous thought. (Apparently it must exist "fabled" because he thought of it.) He wants to set up kiosks in local grocery stores as mini-offices. These offices will offering customers the ability to sign up for car and home insurance services as well as make their bill payments. He believes that the exposure in grocery stores volition increase awareness of the visitor'southward offerings. He told you that senior direction has already cleared the project, and he'll dedicate equally many resources to this as he tin can. He wants the new kiosks in place in 12 selected stores in a major urban center by the end of the year. Finally, he has assigned you to caput up this project.

Your showtime question should be, "Is it a project?" This may seem uncomplicated, but disruptive projects with ongoing operations happens oftentimes. Projects are temporary in nature, accept definite start and finish dates, result in the cosmos of a unique production or service, and are completed when their goals and objectives have been met and signed off past the stakeholders.

Using these criteria, permit's examine the assignment from the VP of marketing to determine if information technology is a project:

  • Is it unique? Yes, because the kiosks don't exist in the local grocery stores. This is a new way of offering the company's services to its client base. While the service the company is offering isn't new, the mode it is presenting its services is.
  • Does the production have a express timeframe? Aye, the start date of this project is today, and the stop date is the end of next yr. It is a temporary endeavor.
  • Is there a mode to make up one's mind when the project is completed? Yeah, the kiosks will be installed and the services will be offered from them. Once all the kiosks are installed and operating, the project will come to a close.
  • Is at that place a manner to determine stakeholder satisfaction? Yes, the expectations of the stakeholders volition exist documented in the form of requirements during the planning processes. These requirements will be compared to the finished production to make up one's mind if information technology meets the expectations of the stakeholder.

If the answer is yes to all these questions, then we take a project.

The Process of Projection Direction

You've determined that you lot have a project. What now? The notes y'all scribbled down on the back of the napkin at lunch are a start, but non exactly proficient project management practice. Also often, organizations follow Nike's advice when it comes to managing projects when they "just exercise it." An assignment is made, and the projection team members jump directly into the development of the production or service requested. In the terminate, the delivered production doesn't meet the expectations of the customer. Unfortunately, many projects follow this poorly constructed path, and that is a primary contributor to a large per centum of projects non meeting their original objectives, every bit defined by functioning, schedule, and upkeep.

In the United States, more than $250 billion is spent each yr on information technology (IT) awarding development in approximately 175,000 projects. The Standish Group (a Boston-based leader in project and value functioning enquiry) released the summary version of their 2009 Anarchy Study that tracks project failure rates across a wide range of companies and industries (Figure 2.one).

A bar chart showing 32% of projects succeeding, 44% challenged, and 24% failed
Figure 2.1: Summary of 2009 Standish Group CHAOS written report.

Jim Johnson, chairman of the Standish Group, has stated that "this year'due south results show 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 belatedly, over upkeep, 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 stop wasting billions of dollars on failed projects? The vast majority of this waste is completely avoidable: simply go the right business concern needs (requirements) understood early in the process and ensure that project direction techniques are applied and followed, and the project activities are monitored.

Applying practiced project management subject is the fashion to help reduce the risks. Having good project management skills does not completely eliminate problems, risks, or surprises. The value of good project management is that you have standard processes in place to deal with all contingencies.

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques applied to project activities in order to meet the projection requirements. Projection management is a process that includes planning, putting the projection plan into action, and measuring progress and functioning.

Managing a project includes identifying your projection'southward requirements and writing down what everyone needs from the project. What are the objectives for your project? When everyone understands the goal, it's much easier to go on them all on the correct path. Make certain y'all set goals that anybody agrees on to avoid team conflicts afterwards on. Agreement and addressing the needs of everyone affected past the project means the end result of your projection is far more likely to satisfy your stakeholders. Terminal simply non least, as projection manager, you will as well exist balancing the many competing projection constraints.

On any project, you will have a number of project constraints that are competing for your attention. They are cost, scope, quality, chance, resource, and time.

  • Cost is the budget approved for the projection including all necessary expenses needed to evangelize the project. Inside organizations, project managers have to balance betwixt not running out of coin and not underspending considering many projects receive funds or grants that have contract clauses with a "use information technology or lose information technology" approach to project funds. Poorly executed budget plans can outcome in a last-minute rush to spend the allocated funds. For virtually all projects, cost is ultimately a limiting constraint; few projects can go over upkeep without somewhen requiring a corrective action.
  • Telescopic is what the projection is trying to achieve. It entails all the piece of 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's 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 too run into other functioning requirements, or service levels, such as availability, reliability, and maintainability, and take adequate end and polish. Quality on a project is controlled through quality assurance (QA), which is the procedure of evaluating overall projection functioning on a regular basis to provide conviction that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards.
  • Hazard is defined past potential external events that will have a negative impact on your projection if they occur. Adventure refers to the combination of the probability the event will occur and the impact on the project if the event occurs. If the combination of the probability of the occurrence and the affect on the project is likewise loftier, yous should identify the potential upshot as a risk and put a proactive plan in identify to manage the risk.
  • Resources are required to conduct out the projection tasks. They tin can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition (unremarkably other than labour) required for the completion of a project activeness.
  • Fourth dimension is divers equally the time to complete the project. Fourth dimension is often the most frequent project oversight in developing projects. This is reflected in missed deadlines and incomplete deliverables. Proper command of the schedule requires the careful identification of tasks to exist performed and accurate estimations of their durations, the sequence in which they are going to be washed, and how people and other resource are to be allocated. Any schedule should take into account vacations and holidays.

You may take heard of the term "triple constraint," which traditionally consisted of only time, price, and scope. These are the principal competing projection constraints that you have to be virtually aware of. The triple constraint is illustrated in the form of a triangle to visualize the project work and run into the relationship between the scope/quality, schedule/time, and cost/resource (Figure 2.2). In this triangle, each side represents 1 of the constraints (or related constraints) wherein any changes to whatever one side cause a change in the other sides. The best projects have a perfectly balanced triangle. Maintaining this balance is difficult because projects are prone to change. For example, if telescopic increases, cost and fourth dimension may increase disproportionately. Alternatively, if the amount of money you lot have for your project decreases, you may be able to do equally much, merely your time may increase.

""
Figure 2.2: A schematic of the triple constraint triangle.

Your project may have additional constraints that yous must face, and as the project manager, you have to balance the needs of these constraints against the needs of the stakeholders and your project goals. For case, if your sponsor wants to add functionality to the original telescopic, you will very likely need more money to end the project, or if they cutting the budget, yous will take to reduce the quality of your scope, and if you lot don't get the advisable resource to work on your projection tasks, you will have to extend your schedule because the resources you accept take much longer to terminate the work.

You get the idea; the constraints are all dependent on each other. Call back of all of these constraints as the classic carnival game of Whac-a-mole (Figure 2.iii). Each fourth dimension you try to push one mole back in the pigsty, another one pops out. The best communication is to rely on your projection team to go along these moles in place.

whac a mole machine
Figure 2.3: Whac-a-mole.

Hither is an example of a project that cut quality because the project costs were stock-still. The P-36 oil platform (Figure 2.4) was the largest footing product platform in the earth capable of processing 180,000 barrels of oil per day and 5.2 1000000 cubic metres of gas per day. Located in the Roncador Field, Campos Basin, Brazil, the P-36 was operated by Petrobras.

Petrobras P-36 Sinking
Figure 2.4.: The Petrobras P-36 oil platform sinking.

In March 2001, the P-36 was producing around 84,000 barrels of oil and 1.3 1000000 cubic metres of gas per day when it became destabilized by 2 explosions and subsequently sank in 3,900 feet of water with ane,650 brusque tons of crude oil remaining on board, killing 11 people. The sinking is attributed to a complete failure in quality assurance, and pressure level for increased production led to corners being cut on condom procedures. It is listed as ane of the near expensive accidents with a price tag of $515,000,000.

The following quotes are from a Petrobras executive, citing the benefits of cut quality balls 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 product facility."

"Conventional constraints take been successfully challenged and replaced with new paradigms appropriate to the globalized corporate market place place."

"Elimination of these unnecessary straitjackets has empowered the project's suppliers and contractors to advise 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 place economy of the 21st century."

The dynamic trade-offs between the projection constraint values have been humorously and accurately described in Figure 2.5.

A sign. Image description available.
Figure two.5: Good, Quick, Inexpensive: Choose two. A sign seen at an automotive repair shop. [Image Description]

Project Management Expertise

In order for yous, equally the project managing director, to manage the competing project constraints and the project equally 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 manufacture, understanding of the projection environment, general management cognition and skills, and interpersonal skills. Information technology should be noted that manufacture expertise is not in a certain field but the expertise to run the projection. So while knowledge of the type of industry is important, yous will have a projection team supporting you in this endeavor. For example, if you are managing a project that is building an oil platform, y'all would not be expected to accept a detailed understanding of the engineering since your squad volition have mechanical and civil engineers who will provide the appropriate expertise; notwithstanding, it would definitely help if you understood this type of work.

Let'south take a look at each of these areas in more detail.

Application knowledge

Past standards, we mean guidelines or preferred approaches that are non necessarily mandatory. In contrast, when referring to regulations we mean mandatory rules that must exist followed, such every bit government-imposed requirements through laws. It should go without saying that as a professional, yous're required to follow all applicable laws and rules that apply to your industry, system, or project. Every industry has standards and regulations. Knowing which ones bear on your project before you begin piece of work will not only help the projection to unfold smoothly, simply will also let for constructive risk assay.

Areas of expertise: application knowledge, standards & regulations; understanding the project environment; management knowledge & skills; & interpersonal skills
Figure ii.6: Areas of expertise that a projection manager should bring to the project team.

Some projects crave specific skills in sure application areas. Application areas are made up of categories of projects that have common elements. They can be defined past industry group (pharmaceutical, financial, etc.), section (accounting, marketing, legal, etc.), technology (software development, engineering, etc), or management specialties (procurement, research and evolution, etc.). These application areas are normally concerned with disciplines, regulations, and the specific needs of the project, the client, or the industry. For example, most government agencies have specific procurement rules that employ to their projects that wouldn't exist applicable in the construction industry. The pharmaceutical manufacture is interested in regulations set along by authorities regulators, whereas the automotive industry has little or no business concern for either of these types of regulations. You need to stay up-to-date regarding your industry then that you can apply your knowledge finer. Today's fast-paced advances can leave you behind adequately quickly if you lot don't stay abreast of electric current trends.

Having some level of experience in the application area yous're working in will give you an advantage when information technology comes to project management. While you can call in experts who take the awarding area knowledge, it doesn't hurt for y'all to understand the specific aspects of the awarding areas of your project.

Understanding the Project Environment

There are many factors that need to exist understood inside your projection surroundings (Figure 2.7). At one level, you lot demand 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 sympathize about different countries' cultural influences. Then we motion to the physical environment; here nosotros think about time zones. Think virtually different countries and how differently your project will be executed whether it is just in your country or if it involves an international project squad that is distributed throughout the world in five different countries.

Consider the cultural, social, international, political, and physical environments of a project
Figure 2.7: The important factors to consider within the project surroundings.

Of all the factors, the physical ones are the easiest to empathize, and it is the cultural and international factors that are oftentimes misunderstood or ignored. How nosotros deal with clients, customers, or project members from other countries tin can be critical to the success of the projection. For example, the culture of the United States 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 kickoff names in a business setting, even if they know each other well. In improver, their communication style is more formal than in the United States, and while they tend to value individualism, they also value history, hierarchy, and loyalty. The Japanese, on the other hand, tend to communicate indirectly and consider themselves function of a group, not every bit individuals. The Japanese value hard piece of work and success, equally well-nigh of us do.

How a product is received can be 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 client's cultural differences often produced unexpected situations. Western companies planned their phone systems to work the same fashion in Asia as they did in Europe and the Usa. But the protocol of conversation was unlike. Call-waiting, a popular characteristic in the West, is considered impolite in some parts of Asia. This cultural blunder could have been avoided had the squad captured the project environment requirements and involved the customer.

It is often the simplest things that tin can cause trouble since, unsurprisingly, in different countries, people do things differently. One of the most notorious examples of this is likewise one of the most simple: appointment formats. What day and month is 2/8/2009? Of course it depends where yous come from; in North America it is February 8th while in Europe (and much of the rest of the world) it is second Baronial. Clearly, when schedules and deadlines are being divers it is important that everyone is clear on the format used.

The multifariousness of practices and cultures and its touch on products in general and on software in particular goes well beyond the date effect. You may be managing a project to create a new website for a visitor that sells products worldwide. There are language and presentation mode issues to take into consideration; converting the site into dissimilar languages isn't plenty. It is obvious that yous need to ensure the translation is right; even so, the presentation layer will have its ain set of requirements for different cultures. The left side of a website may be the start focus of attention for a Canadian; the right side would be the initial focus for anyone from the Center Eastward, as both Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left. Colors likewise take unlike meanings in different cultures. White, which is a sign of purity in North America (eastward.g., a bride's wedding clothes), and thus would be a favoured background colour in Northward America, signifies death in Japan (e.thou., a burial shroud). Table ii.1 summarizes different meanings of common colours.

Table 2.1: The meaning of colours in diverse cultures.
Colour United States China Japan Egypt France
Red Danger, stop Happiness Anger, danger Death Elite
Blue Sadness, melancholy Heavens, clouds Villainy Virtue, organized religion, truth Freedom, peace
Green Novice, apprentice Ming dynasty, heavens Future, youth, energy Fertility, force Misdeed
Yellow Cowardice Nascency, wealth Grace, nobility Happiness, prosperity Temporary
White Purity Death, purity Decease Joy Naturality

Project managers in multicultural projects must appreciate the civilisation dimensions and try to learn relevant customs, courtesies, and business protocols before taking responsibleness for managing an international project. A projection manager must take into consideration these various cultural influences and how they may affect the project'southward completion, schedule, scope, and toll.

Management Knowledge and Skills

As the project manager, you accept to rely on your project management knowledge and your general manage­ment skills. Here, we are thinking of items like your ability to plan the project, execute information technology properly, and of class control it and bring information technology to a successful conclusion, along with your ability to guide the project squad to reach project objectives and balance project constraints.

There is more to project management than just getting the work done. Inherent in the process of project direction are the general management skills that allow the project manager to complete the project with some level of efficiency and control. In some respects, managing a project is similar to running a concern: there are take a chance and rewards, finance and accounting activities, man resources issues, time management, stress management, and a purpose for the project to be. General management skills are needed in every project.

Interpersonal Skills

Last just not least y'all besides accept to bring the ability into the project to manage personal relationships and deal with personnel issues as they arise. Here were talking about your interpersonal skills every bit shown in Effigy 2.viii.

Communication

Project managers spend ninety% of their time communicating. Therefore they must be good communicators, promoting clear, unambiguous exchange of data. As a projection manager, it is your job to keep a number of people well informed. It is essential that your project staff know what is expected of them: what they have to do, when they take to do it, and what budget and time constraints and quality specifications they are working toward. If project staff members practice non know what their tasks are, or how to accomplish them, then the entire project will grind to a halt. If you do non know what the project staff is (or ofttimes is not) doing, and so you will be unable to monitor project progress. Finally, if you are uncertain of what the customer expects of you, then the projection volition not even get off the footing. Project communication can thus be summed up as knowing "who needs what information and when" and making certain they have it.

Interpersonal skills include communication, influence, leadership, motivation, negotiation, and problem solving
Figure 2.eight: Interpersonal skills required of a project managing director.

All projects crave sound communication plans, but not all projects will have the same types of commu­nication or the same methods for distributing the information. For example, will information be distributed via mail service or electronic mail, is at that place a shared website, or are face-to-face meetings required? The communication management program documents how the communication needs of the stakeholders will be met, including the types of information that will exist 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 plan as the project progresses, including the escalation procedure; and a glossary of mutual terms.

Influence

Project management is about getting things done. Every organization is dissimilar in its policies, modes of operations, and underlying culture. There are political alliances, differing motivations, conflicting interests, and power struggles. A projection manager must empathize all of the unspoken influences at piece of work inside an system.

Leadership

Leadership is the power to motivate and inspire individuals to piece of work toward expected results. Leaders inspire vision and rally people around common goals. A good projection manager can motivate and inspire the projection team to see the vision and value of the project. The project manager as a leader can inspire the project team to find a solution to overcome perceived obstacles to become the work washed.

Motivation

Motivation helps people work more than efficiently and produce better results. Motivation is a constant process that the project managing director must guide to help the squad move toward completion with passion and a profound reason to complete the work. Motivating the team is accomplished by using a variety of team-building techniques and exercises. Team building is only getting a diverse group of people to piece of work together in the virtually efficient and effective manner possible. This may involve management events equally well as individual actions designed to improve squad performance.

Recognition and rewards are an important office of team motivations. They are formal ways of recognizing and promoting desirable behaviour and are most effective when carried out by the direction squad and the project manager. Consider individual preferences and cultural differences when using rewards and recognition. Some people don't like to be recognized in forepart of a group; others thrive on it.

Negotiation

Projection managers must negotiate for the good of the project. In whatever project, the projection manager, the projection sponsor, and the project team will have to negotiate with stakeholders, vendors, and customers to reach a level of agreement adequate to all parties involved in the negotiation process.

Problem Solving

Problem solving is the ability to understand the heart of a problem, look for a viable solution, so make a decision to implement that solution. The starting signal for problem solving is problem definition. Problem definition is the ability to understand the cause and effect of the problem; this centres on root-crusade analysis. If a projection manager treats only the symptoms of a problem rather than its cause, the symptoms volition perpetuate and proceed through the project life. Even worse, treating a symptom may effect in a greater problem. For example, increasing the ampere rating of a fuse in your car because the old one keeps blowing does not solve the problem of an electric brusk that could result in a fire. Root-crusade assay looks beyond the immediate symptoms to the cause of the symptoms, which then affords opportunities for solutions. Once the root of a problem has been identified, a decision must be made to effectively address the problem.

Solutions tin can be presented from vendors, the project team, the projection director, or various stakeholders. A viable solution focuses on more than just the trouble; it looks at the cause and effect of the solution itself. In addition, a timely decision is needed or the window of opportunity may pass and then a new determination will be needed to accost the problem. Every bit in most cases, the worst thing yous can do is nada.

All of these interpersonal skills will be used in all areas of projection management. Start practicing at present considering it's guaranteed that you lot'll need these skills on your next project.

Image Descriptions

Figure ii.5 paradigm description: The sign says, "We can do good, quick, and cheap work. You can take any 2 simply non all three. 1. Good, quick work won't be inexpensive. 2. Good, cheap piece of work won't be quick. 3. Quick, cheap piece of work won't be good." [Return to Effigy 2.five]

Text Attributions

  • This chapter of Project Direction is a derivative of Projection Direction by Merrie Barron and Andrew Barron. © CC BY (Attribution).
  • Table ii.ane: Adjusted from P. Russo and S. Boor, How Fluent is Your Interface? Designing for International Users, Proceedings of the Collaborate '93 and CHI '93, Clan for Computing Machinery, Inc. (1993). Tabular array from Barron & Barron Projection Management for Scientists and Engineers, Source: Project 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/

Posted by: robertstans1957.blogspot.com

0 Response to "Which Action Could Result In A Hearing Being Ordered By The Department Of Financial Services"

Post a Comment

Iklan Atas Artikel

Iklan Tengah Artikel 1

Iklan Tengah Artikel 2

Iklan Bawah Artikel