Expert Judgement Tool

ProjectManagement Assignment 5 : What is the best tool use in expert judgment?

It was been discussed before that in order to organize a project, the project team is required to split or break the main project to several phases. These phases are composed of unique processes, and it is constructed with prerequisites. Some or most of these phases will encounter a technique called the Expert Judgment. To handle some risks, generate ideas and decision makings on the project, expert judgments are being conducted to guide the project team.

Expert judgment is mostly used in developing project charter, direct and manages project execution, perform integrated change control, define scope, estimate activity resources, estimating costs, identifying stakeholders, perform qualitative risk analysis, plan risk responses, conducting procurements and etc.

Defining what expert judgment is about: Expert judgment is a common technique used in estimation methods. Most judgments are based on expertise being acquired from specific areas and knowledge, which concludes that this method merely relies on factors such as gained experience from past projects. Which reminds me of something, having students consulting to a mentor for an approval or changes is also a practice of this expert judgment! LOL! Expert judgment is often used to assess the inputs needed to develop the project charter. Through this, gaining an edge using historical data is no more an issue. Inaccurate estimation definitely leads to failure, that’s why accurate data are important to set a mark for those estimations.

Through observations, I had managed to come up with a disadvantage regarding to the matter of having this expert judgment. Yes it is true that through this, the project team could have the advantage of securing the outcome of their project, hence giving them the assurance for a better quality. But using this technique or approach, the project team would spend a large time especially when taking the path of having the interviews and consults. Thus, the project team should be well prepared for consequence of using it or simply its drawbacks.

Any individual who has the knowledge and experience relating to the project could be considered as an expert. It could be a member of the team, an individual with same project in the past, and the project manager. But to avoid having biases, it is more appropriate to have an expert who’s outside the project, an individual or a group who’s not related to the project itself. Through this, the team could have an assurance of having the judgments straight, clear and real.

Expert judgment is a technique right? Where in this expert judgment is an approach to secure the quality of the ongoing project. Tools are being introduced to support this approach or rather the technique. Some tools that could be employed in this technique are the following:

Interviews – Interviews are common to us, this is a tool we had been using specially when we are in doubt or we do not have knowledge on something, it can go to a one-to-one or a many-to-one basis (which is compose of the expert and the apprentice or the project team). Interviews are conducted by asking a series of related questions to an expert or an individual whose knowledgeable that will increase your knowledge of the project or a particular project activity.

Brainstorming – Brainstorming is basically about sharing related ideas, knowledge and solution as an approach for a specific problem. This works by getting a group to focus on a problem and then coming up with as many ideas as possible to determine an absolute solution. The goal of brainstorming is to achieve a broad list of project risks and solutions to terminate further damages to the project.

Consulting – Another tool of expert judgment, in which the project team will come for an expert to have a consultation regarding to the risk and progress of their project. An effective approach, for it could give the project team the path that they must take and a consultant that will test and neglect some options.

Historical Data – Historical data uses the knowledge gained on a similar past project activity to obtain duration estimates for each activity associated with a current project. With the proven data, the team could compare and come up with a better approach or implementation for the project.

Using these tools and techniques, the project team could expand their knowledge about the projects’ risks control and on how to deal with the several options and additions for the developments and progress of their project.

Below are some techniques that still comprise the expert judgment (innovations made to cover the weaknesses of the said technique.):

Another technique that can be applied to handle risks and conclude ideas and solution is the analogous estimating. Analogous estimating is one form of expert judgment and it also known as Top-down Estimating. This approach or technique is mostly reliable when the previous activities are similar in fact and not just in appearance, and the project team members preparing the estimates have the needed expertise. This estimation technique will be applied to determine the duration when the detailed information about the project is not available, usually during the early stages of the project.

Another technique for judgment is the Delphi approach or Wideband Delphi technique attempts to gather the opinions of a group of experts with the aim of producing an accurate unbiased estimate, as mentioned earlier that having expert judgments with the project manager or anyone involved with in the project could or might result in bias for they might not see the abnormalities or severe risks in the project. Delphi technique is a structured technique of expert judgment and is essentially a form based technique involving a multi step procedure and these are: The experts are issued the specification and estimation form by the co-coordinator, a group meeting is held to discuss the product and estimation issues, experts produce an independent estimate, estimates are returned indicating the median estimate and the expert’s personal estimate, another group meeting is held to discuss results, experts prepare a revised independent estimate, steps 3-6 are repeated until a consensus is reached by the panel of experts.


http://www.ecfc.u-net.com/cost/expert.htm
http://project-management-knowledge.com/definitions/e/expert-judgment/
http://www.ecfc.u-net.com/cost/delph.htm
PMBOK of Knowledge

Project versus Other Works

ProjectManagement Assignment 4: How is a project different to any other work? Is Project Management relevant to me? cite examples.

Consider this one: Before you can effectively manage a project, you must first define and understand its projects’ nature (base on the lesson of making meaning, which would result to a good project) - its purposes, objectives, scopes, and budgeting. Some people would define the project as not existing until it has a sufficient definition, because it is impossible to start a project without the thorough examination about it.
scratch scratch scratch

How could I differentiate a project from any forms of work when even I myself am puzzled from it? I was blinded by the word “update” which I usually hear when talking about projects, and the term which states that “there is no such thing as a perfect project or a 100% completion on projects for it involves continuous progress as time passes”. I was puzzled about these factors until I had a little reading and found a missing important part of it. A project is limited; I had disregarded the fact that a project has a bounded lifecycle which has a definite start and an end. Basing in this words, I was been enlightened, and had figured out that these factors are just components of it which means a project is composed of updates and maintenance to deliver its services properly. What I am saying is, a projects’ life ends upon its submission, but its service which needs updates and maintenance still goes on, for a project is not a continuous process but the service it caters is the constant one. That’s what I had concluded from that mind bugling phrases (I suppose) and am hoping I got it straight and right.

Let me elaborate more about these so called projects. A project must be punctual (time is crucial for a project is temporary and has a definite end), must be passed in its deadline and must meet its requirements.
Temporary – a project is said to be temporary because it has a specific due date. It has a definite beginning and an end. And projects must be punctual at any cost. A project is a temporary activity with a starting date, specific goals and conditions, defined responsibilities, a budget, a planning, a fixed end date and multiple parties involved. Therefore, a project has a limited time and the members involved in the said project must cooperate to comply and meet its requirements before the time surpass them.

A continuous process is not a project. An ongoing task in considered as another form of work, for as I had stated earlier a project has a limited lifecycle. Most projects uses top-down cycle (started with a planning, analysis, design and implementation) this comprises updates after the project be presented to a test, and after all of this the cycle will never go backwards. Like any form of lifecycles, there is no turning backs but instead several changes may occur within it not unless you start on building another one. An example of a project is the creation of a certain system, which is upon completion, will be considered as a candidate for maintenance. Its subsequent updates and maintenance are no longer being considered as a project but still a part of it. In hands to this let me again stress out the “project end”. At the very end of certain projects, updates, maintenance and testing are considered to determine and ensure the services that certain project generates; to determine that the project had achieved and met all requirements, and to identify its weaknesses. Another example is all about chores, as we all know chores are done almost every day which I conclude that it would not be appropriate to call it a project, for it is ongoing or continuous if we based it from a lifetime process. But if we consider it as a task for a day, then we could say that it is a project for it will later come to an end (for the day). A project is composed of several objectives, a project could be divided to several tasks which they termed as project decomposition or breakdown and the proponents must works on each of the refined tasks in order to reach their goals and the goal of the project. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to business operations, which are repetitive, continuous, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to present their products and services. To make it more clear, projects are commonly different to businesses operations which needs a flow of development (which are considered as some of the other forms of work which contradicts the definition of project as a task). Projects are vulnerable to failures, if a team has failed to follow the decided run of the project time-line, then it would surely become a candidate for failing. The project’s success relies on the team itself and also the effectiveness of their project management. Thus, for it to succeed, a project must deliver to cost, to quality, and on time (which refers to the basic characteristics of a good quality project); and it must deliver the benefits presented in the business case, it must be productive, worthy or should we say cost effective.

The second question is “is project management relevant to me?”… Defining project management based on my learning, it is a key or tool used to have an organized project structure. To have a preliminary view or make certain of the projects outcome, a team should use some project management tools. Project management has been a useful tool in many operations, leading to better innovations that had change the world and had changed the people’s lives. Project management tools can make sure of the projects great foundation, for its quality and standard basis. We had already deal with these things couple of assignments ago, but to rest assure to explain its importance (or rather to be true, just for the word count! LOL) I had provided this terms. Project management is a carefully planned, analysis and organized effort to accomplish a successful and high quality projects. A project is a one-time effort that produces a specific result (or rather takes a limited time), for example, a building or a major new computer system. This is in contrast to generating a program because program as what I had research takes a continuous processes, also comprises with managing series of related multiple projects together, and as I had defined earlier, projects are not continuous thus programs are not projects. We had almost widen the meaning of project management, now how is this related to me? Simple, in our tasks especially on a student like me, project management is a helpful tool or method to organize things such as common school projects. For in a student’s life, there is no way of escaping a project not unless you have the plan of failing a certain subject because of specific projects to make. If you have been given a specific job to complete then you should consider using the principles of project management. This is one of the many things to apply the project management to my life. Let’s take it in another scenario or let’s have some literal examples; project management involves planning for the projects objective and goals, evolution of project through thorough analysis and updates to maximize a projects capabilities and budgeting a projects limited resources; at my certain age I could relate myself through this by simply basing on my lives processes as a whole, like project management, I am also oblige to plan several things for my future and to plan for the achievements of my goals in life; like project management who makes projects evolved to a well developed one, I also have my own evolutions, from being a child who wanders everywhere to a matured one and hopefully for a full maturity as the years surpasses. Evolution had started after I was blown out form my mothers’ womb! Like the first step of the project management, the planning for my life had started and generated there which has been leaded by my parents. And also, I had gone through several processes to gain some knowledge like as having a project through several processes to ensure its service via the tracking of project management. And one last thing! About the phase of budgeting within the project management method, for years I had been forced to budget my allowance to fit it in to my needs (isn't this a good sample of the relationship?).

Just bare in mind that those works with a continuous process could never be considered as projects, for projects has a planned due or is limited. If a task has a definite end, then we could call it as a project. And to assure the project development, must use a project management tool to have project more organized. To settle things within projects, there are lots of project management tools that can help you organize your project elements or tasks one good example of this is a Gantt chart, which is capable of giving the users tracking capabilities for them to be more oriented in the happenings inside their projects.

http://www.epmbook.com/projdefwhy.htm
http://www.spottydog.u-net.com/guides/faq/faq.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management

Project Management as a Method

ProjectManagement Assignment 3 : Is Project Management the best method of implementing change?

Project management by its meaning is the organizing, securing and managing resources; basically it is the foundation of having a high quality and well delivered project outcomes. As you can see, project management (via the use of project management tools) are essential in planning for a good head start, with this you can achieve a higher success rate rather than having it the other way around. Project management helps us to define several things, such as the scope of the project, its elements, the critical things we must consider, the budgeting, its weaknesses, what must be needed to modified, inserted or deleted to enhance the operational process of a project. By breaking a whole project into several milestones into a simplified and refined one, you could simply determine those elements that must be considered and this is done through project management methodology. If you force change on people (without considering their nature, aspects, needs and etc.) normally problems arise for it will create a chaos between the project outcome and the people (which are basically the users of the project). Change must be realistic, achievable and measurable. These aspects are especially relevant to managing personal change. Before starting a project change, you must consult to several people such as the: owner of the project or the client, some expert who will judge those changes and project fairly and better ask yourselves: What do we want to achieve with this change, why, and how will we know that the change has been achieved? Who is affected by this change, and how will they react to it? Project management is the key on answering all of these questions.

To start with, I had mentioned the words modify, insert and delete in which project management are capable in doing to. Clearly, project management is one of the best methods to implement changes inside your projects. I’m not saying that it is totally the best for I am sure that I haven’t met all those implementing changes methods yet, but to assure you that project management is also effective if used properly and abide according to the planned time-line. Remember that as your scope changes, several things will change and that must be considered. As scope changes, the time-line or span of the project, the budgeted cost, and even its quality would be altered. For scope planning specifically comes first before any of those mentioned components. Through this, you can possibly work over changes in a more organized manner, so that you will have a guide or tracking to identify the specific problems ahead as the changes undergoes. Typically, project management is also a useful tool in budget managing, for you could identify if you still have enough resources to be considered to operate some changes and modifications on a project, if there is still an appropriate amount of money to be allocated for some enhancements on it. Considering you are the project administrator or proponent, having enough resources a client could ask for changes on the project to satisfy their basic needs, so you will go through updates on almost all aspects and this project management (tool / method) is a functional way to help you analyze and synthesis a concrete way of meeting them.

Project Management is a methodology and a discipline which can bring significant benefits to organizations by:-

• Ensuring limited resources are used on the right projects – as I had said earlier, project management involves budget planning in order to determine the project limitation and secure its quality.

• Managing complex changes in an organized way – because all elements had been broke down to several structures, changes would easily be applied and the things it will affect will easily be managed or determined, thus making it easier for the project developers to have certain changes on the said project.

• It could also assess some risks as changes occur – certainly there is always a risk inside a project specially in putting up changes. Prevention is better than cure, by engaging in this method you could assess some risks and convert those risks into a useful tool to optimize your project.

In order to have a high quality project outcomes, changes or updates such as deletion and inserting (adding) within a project must be always present. These are some of the several important components to be considered to meet the clients’ standards. Consider a project without this tool or methodology that has undergone several changes to be enhanced; would the resulting project outcome a success? Probably no! Especially when we are talking about huge quantities of projects which are merely composed of several elements and these elements are all having prerequisites, which are the foundation of the project, its core or its major components. Without these project management methodologies and tools, how will you keep track of the issues within a project? And if changes occur, how will you trace the area of effect of the specific changes? How will you determine the changes on the scope and manage the limited resources? Would it be possible to manipulate it easily? No, no, no. Remember, project has a limited time with a definite start and end; you cannot manage changes without these tracking provided by project management methods.

See the difference of not applying and importance of having the project management in terms of including some changes within a project? It will surely help you to manage all of those changes and ensure you the quality of it. Changes are made to suit for the quote “Quality over Quantity”, preferring quality for it would surely satisfy you, than having several functions of quantity but is not satisfying at all. Similarly we could talk about the cost-benefit of a project, wherein lots of benefits are aquired at a lower cost. The usefulness of this specified tool had already been discussed and proven, wherein without this you could not manage changes in just a bunch of time. With this tool and method in hand with several changes, you would surely gain the best quality of the project, assuring that it would give a big impact on the clients’ satisfaction.

http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm
http://www.spottydog.u-net.com/guides/faq/frameset.html

Reasons for Project Failures

ProjectManagement Assignment 2: Why do project/s fail? Cite some example

In the previous meetings, we had discussed the lessons about projects, management, and what do project management is actually all about. We had gathered and had shared several taught to expounds the given words and basically come up a better explanation on these specific things. I am happy and so thankful for the things that they had shared and moreover had clarified which had given me some knowledge which is in contrast to what I really think about.

As an introduction for this, let me review and perhaps add some details on the lessons which our professor taught us couple of meeting ago. Projects are tasks given to a group or even on an individual that must be done and submitted in a specific time; primarily, it involves being punctual (or the time-span of the project itself), for a project is limited (meaning a project has a due or passing date, and in order for it to secure a good quality result, it must possess the basic or fundamental characteristics of a good project). A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within the budget and according to specifications. Talking about management, it takes the place of organizing, as said in the discussion, a manager is the person that has the authority when it comes in terms of management or managing, he is the one who carries the responsibility of making vital decisions, in organizing sequence of (related)events, and some other things. The characteristics for a good manager and the comparison between it and a leader had also been discussed. Furthermore, management comprises planning, organizing, directing, and controlling an organization (PODC). Management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired their objectives effectively. It indicates the process of planning, leading, organizing and controlling people within a group in order to achieve goals. And lastly, project management (which is the core of the discussion). Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Project managing involves planning, identifying specific resources, and identifying the limitation of the budget. This engages the triple constraint which involves the project Scope, time, and cost.

I could say that projects or tasks are some of the effective ways to learn several things. In a form of giving a project, students (like us) can enhance and expand their learning. Even if projects are really a pain in student’s butt, but then they some take the tasks because as I said, it is a more effective way to learn via your own self. They could also use their own skills and come up with a better idea themselves. An example of this (just to clarify what I was really trying to point out): this article is a form of task or project which is really a requirement to pass the subject, this articles are gathered together to form a compilation of several tasks. These articles as I said is one of the effective ways to teach a student in a form of giving a project, for students are forced to have their reflections on a specific lesson which includes an amount of words. Think about this, what if a student had already putted his or her reflection about a lesson, but then he or she lacks the required amount of words, so basically he or she would be forced to have a self study which is via the internet; through surfing, he or she could expand his and her knowledge about the lesson, hence giving lots of information to put up on the on going article. Through giving a project as a task for a course, I could say that it is one of the effective ways of training or teaching a student. Unleashing their sleeping abilities, developing and enhancing bought their knowledge and skills.

Why do projects fail? In most cases, there is a huge percentage of failing in a project than having it the other way around. Its logic is simple, it just need a proper management. It fails due to some specific reasons such as: it failed to meet specific requirements (requirements which are essentially needed for services for example) that it must have in order for it to be satisfying, worthy, and even for it to render a good and high quality services (as said earlier); it failed to be completed in the given or requested time (for as I said, it is temporary), the quality of a project also depends on its punctuality, on the time spent to finalize it and even the time spent on doing it. And most of all, if the project doesn’t possess any of the main characteristics that a good project must have. A project may be considered as a failure when it has not provided what was required or assumed to be on a part of it as it finished (example: some expected features that it had stated on a specific proposal but then failed to deliver it to the clients), in line with expectations. Thus, for it to succeed, a project must deliver to cost, to quality, and on time (which refers to the basic characteristics of a good quality project); and it must deliver the benefits presented in the business case, like in my given example enclosed in the parenthesis or rather it must be productive, worthy or should we say cost effective.
Here are some bulleted reasons of why and how do certain projects fail (self-explanatory reasons which are more expounded for the sake of word count):

• Late submission – when the project had been surpassed by its due date, when it had failed to be passed on the given time. For all projects are temporary and has a definite end. For students like us, late submission of entries of projects could cause to a deduction of grade; but putting it in a more unfortunate way, there are tendencies that a mentor or rather a professor would not accept the project anymore for the dead line had already passed by. Applying it to our daily living, being tardy (even if due to several reasons) could result into a punishment or could drive into a big loss. See how big being punctual is? Even in everyday living, we could apply and have a good use of it.

• Failed to meet requirements – expected output from different projects are anticipated, that in the end of the project, it must deliver the required things that it must have. Failing to meet a requirement would surely degrade a presented project. Take this as an example: based on my experience, we were asked to develop a web game in which we were divided into a group of 3 members each. We had stated in our proposal some features that we presumed our game could have, but then due to difficulty and time issues (basically lacking of management), we had failed to deliver a stated feature, although some of the features were deliver but unfortunately that said lacking feature was the one our professor was interested to. It had affected the rating of our project and seemingly had affected our grade for the course. Now, see the importance? (Several reasons are still on the line, sit back and enjoy reading the article).

• Quality problem – the quality of the project as I was saying, involves its punctuality and approach. The quality of the project depends on how in renders a certain service just for example. Quality of a project also considers it uniqueness, some involves it durability, effectiveness and on how useful it is. Example of a quality problem is: let’s say a car that has a poor performance and durability; that could not even boost itself to a higher speed.

• Financial management – a good manager also must have the skills of a good talker, which involves convincing powers or strategies to encouraged sponsors to put some as an add-on to their resources to start a project (but this kind of things could only be applied in big transactions which also involves big time projects). Organizing the resources especially when it comes to financial is also vital. Must control the flow of the money until the last penny if you want to fit a given budget for a specific project. Most projects especially when we are talking of infrastructures are left, abandoned being unfinished because of the failure in financial management. These infrastructures might have been completed if only they had controlled the flow of the budgeted money (I am talking about taking corruption out of the way). If only they have controlled the flows, then people of our generation might have been wandering around the structures. A lesson to all that is remarkable.

• Poor architecture – poor architecture of the project, it may not be presentable or might have some defects within its architecture. When talking of systems, it may had failed to give good services due to its poor architecture; and going to the example of being an engineer, let’s take a house for it is a good example, i.e we had a house, built but still not continued due to the issue of having a poor architecture which led to numerous of defects and an outstanding failure. Quality and performance of projects do always refer to its architecture.

• Poor schedule estimation - poor schedule estimation will always result in cramming, which later result in failing to pass the project on time or failing to meet the requirements of the schedule due to the lack of time. Example of this is a given assignment was introduced couple of days ahead, but then students are doing it a day before the deadline. This sometimes results in missing to pass the given assignment. Having a proper scheduling of the tasks helps you to avoid having the tasks being filed up. Practicing a good scheduling helps prevent the missing of any projects and also helps to maximize the working time.

• Conflicts – Several conflicts may be present in doing a project. As far as I could remember, somebody had said that there are no group projects without fighting. For me there are three conflicts that could happen in a project. Conflicts between the creators of the said project, conflicts between the creators and the client, and most of all conflicts between the creators and the project itself. Fighting if always present in a group project because everybody aims for the better result of their project. First is the conflicts between the creators or proponents, in a negative way proponents may conflict because of their behaviors and characteristics (example: one of the members may be lazy which caused them several delays), and in a positive way of thinking, proponents might have conflicts between each other because they want to enhance the project in a different way which is contrast to the other idea. Second is the conflict between the proponents and the clients, clients might have several requests or demands which the creators of the project might seen it a little hassle and could even give them redundancy of functions. In some cases, proponents might fail to deliver the project to the clients at the expected time. They might have some troubles in finishing it or they might not meet the requirements given or asked by the clients. And the last one is the conflicts between the proponents and the project itself; this involves the critical moments within the project. The proponents or creators might be having a difficulty on it, they might have a poor budget estimation on it, or they might have missed plan the sequence of the project. These conflicts are generated based on what I understood about the word conflict itself. Having without any basis, these ideas had just pop out of my mind, and hope that idea was right.

• Inadequate communication, including progress tracking and reporting – having a good communication skill is really applicable especially when involving business. Earlier I had mentioned that a good manager needs to have a good communication skill, for him or her to easily approach several investors for his or her proposed project, to gain some investors to start up his or her idea. Having good communication skills is also needed to deliver properly several reports or tracking of the project. It is proper to have a reliable source of reports and tracking of the project. Having fake reports for the sake of other agendas could result in a major problem. For example: a project proponent or leader had presented a false tracking and report of the on going project because he wants the client to be impressed or he wants to show the client that there is nothing to be worried about. Although he had convinced the client but still the real evolution of the project is in delay which makes it to be finished in delay. This action would lead to a bigger problem, because first he had lied to the client (which makes his professionalism questionable) and he had to catch up on the progression of the project as what he had presented on the claiming client.

• Poor effort had been applied – effort to the max! A phrase that a cartoon character had been always saying. He always puts alls his effort on everything that he do, so that in the end (whether it is a battle or not) he will not regret anything for he knows that he had invested their all he got. Going back, poor effort had been applied, the members or maybe a member had show laziness and had failed to put all his skills and knowledge in the project, this will result in a failure, as usual failure in meeting requirements, its quality and the limited time. It is right to take a step ahead and put all your effort on the development of the project. Projects must be considered as masterpieces, and masterpieces are made to standout! And for it to standout, it must have the right quality.

• Poor plans and planning processes – in the top of this, planning is basically the first key that must be considered for the success of a project. Poor planning of the budget, time, costs, and even the sequence of the elements within a project would have a poor result; it would surely fail, and I could even say it before the project had started. This conclusion could be done even if I had only a minute to think over it. Planning is the foundation of all projects. Having it in a proper way would take the project to the possibility of success, not a 100% but would surely not lower that 60%. So clearly, it is an advantage to take!

• Failure to identify the scopes of the project – Identifying the scope of the project in the first place is an ideal thing to do, to identify the budget, cost and specific time of delivery of the project, its scope must be first analyzed. The scope of the project relies on the request or requirements of the task.

• A manager without a good experience – a group might have difficulties when their leader lacks the experience in controlling the situation. I am not telling that all managers must have an experience, what I was trying to stress out is that a manager must be responsible enough to handle the group, to control the decision making and come up with a nice strategy towards the project.

• Change of Scope - Scopes Changes can also lead to project failure. To Control and to manage scope change is critical to the success of any projects because scope changes can significantly affect the cost, schedule, hazards and quality of the total effort. Affecting all of these is like starting up a new project for you must adjust on all of them. It could also be difficult on the project team to lack direction or to change scopes. They must work hand on hand in order to solve this kind of uncertain event. They must unite to get back in the line of business.

A project is considered to be a failure when it has not delivered what was required or had failed to meet them, in line with expectations. Therefore, in order to succeed, a project must deliver within its budgeted cost, to its expected quality, and on the limited time; and it must deliver the benefits presented in the business case. For a project to be successful, it's not enough simply to manage your project competently, and deliver a good quality product. As was they had been always saying, always put your heart on the things that you do. To avoid failure, make sure you have identified the right business requirements and scopes, created an achievable business case, put strong project governance into place, managed a high-quality implementation, focused on benefits, and monitored your changing environment. And most of all, always aim for the development and not for the money, for money will always comes next after a great development had grown.

As you can see, these are all the reasons of the projects with failed results, basing on it one-by-one you would notice something… As a general conclusion for these, a group manager or even the members must be responsible enough and must commit them selves into the project. Proper education on project management must be learned before indulging into a real project in order to secure project efficiency and to have enough knowledge to solve possible project risks that may occur. The project is there masterpiece which needs effort to be applied. Discipline on the proponents is needed in order for them to achieve their main objectives and ultimate goals. The proper use of project management could give them the opportunity of success. Planning each phases of the project and identifying the scope is some of the basic keys to start the project properly. DISCIPLINE a word that must be noted for this topic!

http://www.adaptivepartners.com/projfailb.htm
http://www.gantthead.com/article.cfm?ID=187449

Definition of Terms

ProjectManagement Assignment 1:

What is a project?
What is management?
What is project management?
(your reflection/learning's on the first day of class)


When probability is not at 0.0%, it's too soon to quit! Effort is always the key to a great success. Starting this one, “Project management” is a subject being introduced to us to learn the art of organizing the elements of a project, to apply it to our upcoming projects and to avoid failure. Most of the cases, a project haven’t being properly organized results to failure. On the first or second day of class, we had already taken a quiz about the given question, where in it was a time pressured and to admit that after the lecture I had realized that partly of my answers was quite wrong. Sharing of ideas and experiences had been added to clarify the importance of the course subject, and hearing all of it, I could conclude that failure always accompany the time. Time is really crucial and must be considered. Deadline is always a deadline, that’s what my professor said through a joke, but taking it seriously he is typically right about that! And to stress out that pin pointing somebody instead of our selves have been usually done in several cases as a project fails. Now let’s start defining some terms, the project, management and even the project management itself.

So, what is a project?

-Project, a word that is so known to all individuals, not only for the working individuals but also for students like us. For working individuals, projects are given to generate several applications for the use of the company they were in. And for students like us, projects are given to apply the learning and test the capability of a student. Project is a task which is a temporary or has a given due that must be considered. Projects undergo in several steps. A project is consisting of several elements; these elements are those tasks that are needed to be accomplished inside a project. Within a time line, elements of a project are specified and are sorted together to manage the whole project. It is also said that a project is a set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations. A project is an undertaking requiring concerted effort, undertaken by a student or group of students to apply, illustrate, or supplement classroom lessons.

-A project must be punctual (time is crucial for a project is temporary and has a definite end), must be passed in its deadline and must meet its requirements. As what I have learned in our first meeting and by reading the given soft copy of a book, a project is consist of some characteristics, it has mainly three (3) major characteristics and these are the; Temporary; Unique products, Services and Results; and finally it is a Progressive elaboration.

-Dealing with these characteristics, let me elaborate it one by one:

oTemporary – a project is said to be temporary because it has a specific due date. It has a definite beginning and an end. And projects must be punctual at any cost. A project is a temporary activity with a starting date, specific goals and conditions, defined responsibilities, a budget, a planning, a fixed end date and multiple parties involved. Therefore, a project has a limited time and the members involved in the said project must cooperate to comply and meet its requirements before the time surpass them.

oUnique products, Services and Results – relating this one on our technopreneurship one (1) last semester, where in we were oblige to make our proposals as our main project for the subject. As far as I could remember, we were ask to have a business proposal which are unique and could serve and render a good quality of service. This is a definite example of a project having this type of characteristics being stressed out. A project must be unique to ensure or certify its quality. It must have the capability of performing and rendering good service. And most of all, a project must have a good outcome or a satisfying result. The projects result must meet the certain demands and qualifications and it must be on time to show a good result.

oProgressive Elaboration – as what I had said earlier, a project is composed of elements and these elements are performed in steps. Once more a project is a set of related tasks which have a specific goal. A project is a progressive elaboration or in other words, it undergo in several steps of progression. A project is a set of interrelated tasks to be executed in steps to have its coordination. It is a characteristic of a project that has the concept of temporary and unique; to elaborate it more; it has the concept of temporary in a way that each steps of its progress has a definite beginning and an end. And the concept of being unique for each of its progress of steps must be unique, so that the project will be more competitive against any other projects of its kind.

-A project is done with several individuals in a group. Now, these projects may fail or succeed depending on the performance if the member within its group. The unity of each member and the eagerness to finish a certain project might be one of the basic keys to its success.

ProjectManagement Assignment 1: Now, what is a management?

-In our lesson, or what I had understand in their sharing’s: management is the organizing and maintenance of a specific thing or task. A manager is the one responsible for organizing or controlling other people to have an accomplishment or to make things or decisions for the efficiency of a desired goal.

-As what I had learned on the first meeting of class, we had clarified the great difference between a good leader and a good manager. Anyone could be a leader but not a manager, and a having a leader is much more effective than having a manager. Directors and managers who have the power and responsibility to make decisions. Manager is the one who controls the members, giving some orders that must be applied on a progression of a project or something. Before, I thought that leading and managing are two similar things, but then I had realized that they had a great difference especially when applied in managing a project. Directors and managers who have the power and responsibility to make decisions to manage (they had the authority to control things that any regular employee couldn't make). As mentioned in the sharing, a leader unlike a manager can lead his or her members in a proper way, not by instructing or dictating them what they should do, but instead being a good model for his team mates and showing them a bunch of efforts for them to have a motivation and start doing things to reach their goals. The ideal project manager does whatever it takes to ensure that the members of the software project team can do their work. This means working with management to ensure they provide the resources and support required as well as dealing with team issues that are negatively impacting a team's productivity. The project manager must possess a combination of skills including the ability to ask penetrating questions for further informations, and resolve some conflicts along with more systematic management skills. A team with a leader not a commander or a manager which leads them properly will surely have the success for doing their tasks.

-Also for the first meeting, I had learned that management comprises planning, organizing, directing, and controlling an organization (PODC). Management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired their objectives effectively. The process of planning, leading, organizing and controlling people within a group in order to achieve goals.

oPlanning – planning is a part of managing; it is where the proponents or the manager plans the idea and concept of a task or project. This is where they randomly put several ideas for a proposal, which is why it is called a plan. Planning is an act of formulating a program for a definite course of action. Deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next week, next month, next year, over the next 5 years, etc.) and generating plans for action.

oOrganizing – or simply the implementation of the random plans. Here, ideas from planning are being arranged and “organized” to have a lead of the desired goal. In organizing, we must also consider some factors such as resources. We must also consider resources such as tools or money for the progress of the project or in short making optimum use of the resources required to enable the successful carrying out of plans.

oDirecting – is having a command with authority. Determining what needs to be done in a situation and getting people to do it. Having the authority to conduct or rather to give several instructions. Having a part of leading and conducting. To immediately finish a work, the manager must direct his own followers or members to make it stable.

oControl – another part of managing which only managers can apply, for leaders could not put a control over his members because of the authorization matters. Controlling was being associated to leading, but in further studies both of them have different meanings depending on how they were applied as what I had explained earlier. Controlling is also concern in checking the progress against the plans.

-To manage is to be in charge to secure all tasks and things; managing something is not as easy as it looks for it takes to be allotted a huge time to master it, but being a leader only needs skills to pursue. Effective utilization and coordination of resources such as capital, plant, materials, and labor to achieve defined objectives with maximum efficiency. I think I had already sited the differences between a manager and a leader, so far that’s a part of what I had learned that day.

-For example: in a company or let’s put a bank as the center of our example, in a bank there is a manager who manages all the transactions, it is him or her who controls all the transactions and is the center of the decision making beside the owner. He or she is the one who directs the business.

And finally what is a Project Management?

-Project Management has been described in the book as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Now think about this, having a big project without any project management, can someone guess the sure result? Yes! Probably it would result in failing; it is somewhat like cooking a viand without even planning what goes first and what goes next. Imagine that you are making a project without having any organization of the stuffs or rather the elements that must be done; it would surely result in a total disaster for you will not know when you’ll be having a critical times. They say that project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives to meet their common requirements.

-Several applications may be used to serve as the medium in performing a project management, these applications caters several fields to help in planning a project. These applications have time-lines that have its beginning period or the start and the due date or the end. These applications can also define the critical parts, and could also help the user guide his or her way to finish the project in the said time.

-At the first meeting I was also introduced to the three important details that could affect a project, it was also known as the triple constraint which forms like a triangle of important details that must be needed to consider inside a project management. The triple constraint involves the project Scope, Time, and Cost. These three must be balance for the quality of the project. A project must be within its budget, and must consider the time which is known as a temporary. The proponents must plan the scope of their desire project to define or know the specific project requirements. The project scope is the definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish, its goals and requirements, and the budget of time and money that has been created to achieve these objectives. It is absolutely unavoidable that any change to the scope of the project have a matching change in budget, either time or resources. It is unavoidable to leave the resources and time exactly the same as the older planned limitations as the scope changes, for the reason that when a projects scope changes, it is expected that it involves the evolution of it or rather widening its scope which deals more time and budget. A project must not surpass its limited budget and most of all, must not surpass the given time. In short it must be punctual and in budget. All these elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All must be managed together if the project, and the project manager, and the project proponents are aiming a good success.

-And also, managing a project includes: identifying the requirements; establishing clear and achievable objectives; balancing the competing demands for quality, scope, time, and cost; and adapting the specifications, plans and approach to the different concerns and expectations of various stake holders. In a project, identifying its requirements is basically an important thing to do; the proponents must know its requirements for its quality and service purposes. As mentioned earlier, the triple constraint could merely affect the quality of a project, its time, budget of cost and the scope of the project must be considered to reach the projects objective and goals. And most of all in managing a project, planning the sequence of the project elements is a must, to avoid heavy duties and lessen the critical times. Planning and knowing the further solutions that must be needed to apply in the coming challenges or problems inside the said project.

-The term project management is sometimes used to describe something, such as an organizational or managerial approach to the management of projects. And indeed having project management is a real big thing with a real big help in establishing a good quality project.

-Project management as what they had said is carefully planned and organized, and had putted an full effort to accomplish a specific and usually one-time objective, for example, construct a building or implementing a major new computer system (where in making a system needs to have a proper managerial or project management, the whole project must be broken to several elements to avoid errors or conflicts or anything). Project management includes developing a project plan, which includes defining and confirming the project goals and some of its main objectives, its targets, identifying each tasks and how the goals of the project will be achieved, and determining budgets and time-lines for completion. And by the way, in planning a task, it is not always about doing things one at a time, sometimes having two or more things can also be considered depending on the availability of a worker or the toughness or difficulty of a given task, and also depending on the tasks pre-requisites of the said common elements within a project.

An abbreviation was also included in our lecture, it was the S.M.A.R.T. which literally means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable, and Time bounded. Five basic keys needed to be considered for the great progress of projects. Most of these basic keys are already discussed above except the part of being reliable. I wonder why I had missed this one important thing, but anyway back to business; reliable, a project must be reliable especially when we are talking about a project consisting of a system. The outcome of the project must be reliable and could handle or produce a good quality performance for several users will surely rely on it.

As I go for a deep research (with a little help from a source for the copy of the file) about the project management as a whole, we had found a file which is an interesting one, which states the Law of project management. These are:

oProjects progress quickly until they are 90% complete. then they remain at 90% complete forever – as what I had understand, it means that a project similarly takes steps of procedures and progress as time passes, that is why we couldn’t get a 100% project completion because of the several changing demands as the technology evolves.

oWhen things are going well, something will go wrong. When things just can't get worse, they will. When things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something – expect the unexpected, that’s the term they usually connect on these situations, which basically means never let your guard down, possibilities do come even in the smallest percentage of it. A project needs effort, and you’ll never avoid challenges to come in any projects.

oIf project content is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress – lots of changes but still not conquering the main objective of the project, before any changes we must first consider our project objectives, the aims and goals of the project.

oProject teams detest progress reporting because it manifests their lack of progress

For now, I think that’s all what I have learned on our first meeting and on my own researching. The importance of having a project management, the difference between a leader and a manager, the basic keys and elements that must be consider to have a good, satisfying and high quality result of a project, the main characteristics of a project, the things that managing is involved into and etc.. That’s all for this topic and always remember “Only those who endure defeat become stronger. The most elite are those who stand right back up and keep working. The average ones hesitate a moment, and take longer to rise. And the losers are content to stay flat on their backs.” Always put a 100% effort on the things you do and never plan or aim of failing