A critical evaluation of different project management approach

Outline the schedule

One of the most important aspects in project management tasks is choosing the project management approach to be used when conducting a specific project management activity. The choice of project management approach chosen by a project manager solely have a profound effect on the final project outcomes, deliveries or outcomes. In other words, different project management approaches have their own strengths and weaknesses, most of which are dependent on the comprehensiveness, quality output and speed among others (Špundak 2014, p.940).

Project management approach can primarily be referred to as the set of guidelines, principles and process used in a managing a project. Different approaches have their specific trickle of tools to be used when the approaches are chosen. And additionally, the applicability of the approaches vary from project to project (Joslin and Müller 2015, p.1390)

A critical evaluation of the different project management approaches

a). Agile project management process; this is a form of project management approaches that is values cantered and countenances project breakdown into smaller task or phases. This type of approaches permits a high level of flexibility and it is most convenient for projects that reveal dynamic traits. The project managers in this approach highly consider milestones and this is intended to help in the easy adaptation of abrupt change from the clients’ feedback. This type of project management approach may be best suited for small software projects that constitute an exceedingly collaborative group (Svejvig and Andersen, 2015, p.290).

 In other words, this project management approach is best suited or advantageous for projects that have high iteration during its execution. It has a high level of resource freedom for testing and making of incremental changes. This implies that the stakeholders’ feedback are always assimilated into the progressive project. Based on the fact that the stakeholders/ project clients have direct involvement through giving feedbacks, there are low chances of project failures since adjustments are made at every level according to the stakeholder wish or desire (Vijayasarathy and Butler 2016, p.90).

On the other hand, this method is not advantageous in that it affects resource management efficiency, project forecasts and scheduling.

b). Waterfall; this is one of the native and oldest project management approaches that was invented way back in 1970, and was developed with the aim of managing the increasing nature of software development by then. This made it to be the predominantly used in the software development industry/ field. This follows a unified trend of project management, with the project sub-divided into smaller tasks. The succession of another task/ cycle is determined by the success or completion of the preceding task as the approach follows a sequential trend.  This approach is divided into discrete stages which commences with the collection and analysis of the requirement, modelling and designing the solution, implementation and fixing/ adjusting issues if any arises. These stages can best be categorized into five phases that is to say, idea engineering, the system design phase, the implementation phase, testing and validation and finally, the maintenance phase (Serrador and Pinto 2015, p.1051)

A critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of your teamwork

One of the core advantages of this method is that it permits the effective allocation of resources, time scheduling and forecasting of project outcomes. This approach assists in minimizing time and resource wastage linked with the adjustments relocation of resources. Furthermore, the breakdown of the tasks into smaller cycles makes the execution work simpler with minimal level of project failure. Based on the fact that the completion of one stage leads to the other, success has to be achieved before proceeding to the next level (Golini Kalchschmidt and Landoni 2015, p.650).

On the other hand however, the approach high a level of risk. This is due to its level of rigidity, if any error occurs, it is an implication that the whole project has to re-commence from scratch. In addition, the execution of the subtasks solely depends on the project manager with not stakeholder/ customer feedback till the completion of the project. Should the requirement change, the project managers suffer all the losses incurred.

Basically, team work may refer to a joined/ collective commitment of a group of people with the aim of achieving a common goal or aims. It can further be defined as co-operative and collaborative effort of two or more people with the aim of accomplishing a given task or series tasks. Teamwork is an essential strategy for the achievement of successful projects, as for decades, it has been empirically proved and recommended by many project managers.

However, teamwork is only good when there is effective coordination of the team members by the team leaders while working towards a common goal. Once there are incoordination, misunderstandings, poor communication and conflicts of interests, it is substantially true that the teams will fail. It is therefore of high relevance to note that, before building a team to work with, there are some issues and precautions that the team leader should be able to instil in the members. These among others include; problem solving skills, conflict management skills, listening and feedback, and support skills among others.

Teamwork strengths

From the preceding incite, we can typically and imperatively have the following as teamwork strengths.

The ability to execute multiple tasks and increase productivity; when there is effective coordination of the members of a team, it is possible to form sub-groups and have multiple tasks executed simultaneously. This goes beyond the capacity of just a single-hand where each task will have to wait until one is complete. Moreover, more output can be realized in a short time.

Pooling of techniques, skills and knowledge; it is typically true that people possess different talents, techniques and professions. With this fact, an effectively coordinated team members can be able to contribute different skills and techniques of accomplishing a particular task. This will imply the availability of multiple solution to a problem and the best can be chosen or rather the ideas cab=n be integrated to come up with the best optimistic remedy. Moreover, the involved individuals also find it a better platform for learning new ideas from other team members (Sánchez 2015, p.330)

It is a source of motivation; when in a team, people tend to outshine others. In this way, the team members are motivated to work even more and thus a better result is realized in a short time. Additionally, we understand that humans are social animals who prefer to work in a group rather than isolation. This is also a booster in working and execution of tasks.

Weaknesses of our teamwork.

Much as teamwork can be an important strategy in accomplishing tasks and project, if not well coordinated, it can have a negative impact on the performance of an organization or project. These can be witnessed/ encountered in the following ways (Brones Carvalho and de 2014, p.118)

Clash of ideas; once the individuals involved in a team develop a conflict of interests, things tend to go crazy or it can even lead to a failure of the project or team. The idea of working in advance and completing a task at the eleventh hour was one of the causes of clash in the teamwork.

Time wasting in decision making and bureaucracy; when working in a team, the decision reached is as a result of long engagement into discussions, of which sometimes it involves arguments and even violence. Thus can be so time wasting leading to lagging of project or organizational activities.

Unequal participation and involvement of the members; working in a team can be challenging as not all members put in their best efforts. Some members will always prefer to lay back and let others take on the hardy workload. This minimizes the marginal productivity of the members (Mok Shen  and Yang 2015, p.446)

Pausing blames when things go wrong and the vice-versa; humans do not always want to admit their mistakes and thus will always pose their failures into other people. This is because, none takes the full responsibility of the mistakes and yet it is success, each one will want to associate themselves with the success. 

How you managed teamwork, including the techniques

As highlighted earlier, the result of teamwork can only be ripped when there is a proper coordination of all the team members and this is mostly done or implemented by the team leader. It therefore requires the team leader of any team to have some exceptional skills of managing the team. The among others should include but not limited to

• Having conflict management skills
• Problem solving skills
• Listening and feedback skills
• Support skills

Just like other fields, developing and running a websites requires an individual to follow some rules and regulations developed and passed by the relevant authorities. This implies that when certain website owners do not adhere to such legal and ethical regulations, they be subjected to certain enforcements or penalties (Martinelli and Milosevic 2016). It is thus emphasized to follow the legal codes of conduct which include;

• Web accessibility initiative
• Copyright
• Avoid piracy
• Avoid fraud and identity theft
• Phishing scams and
• Privacy

References

Brones, F., de Carvalho, M.M. and de Senzi Zancul, E., 2014. Ecodesign in project management: a missing link for the integration of sustainability in product development?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 80, pp.106-118.

Golini, R., Kalchschmidt, M. and Landoni, P., 2015. Adoption of project management practices: The impact on international development projects of non-governmental organizations. International Journal of Project Management, 33(3), pp.650-663.

Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of Project Management, 33(6), pp.1377-1392.

Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.

Mok, K.Y., Shen, G.Q. and Yang, J., 2015. Stakeholder management studies in mega construction projects: A review and future directions. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.446-457.

Sánchez, M.A., 2015. Integrating sustainability issues into project management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 96, pp.319-330.

Serrador, P. and Pinto, J.K., 2015. Does Agile work?—A quantitative analysis of agile project success. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), pp.1040-1051.

Špundak, M., 2014. Mixed agile/traditional project management methodology–reality or illusion?. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, pp.939-948.

Svejvig, P. and Andersen, P., 2015. Rethinking project management: A structured literature review with a critical look at the brave new world. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.278-290.

Vijayasarathy, L.R. and Butler, C.W., 2016. Choice of software development methodologies: Do organizational, project, and team characteristics matter?. IEEE software, 33(5), pp.86-94.