General discussion on Project management methodology

Discusa About The TQM vs. Six Sigma Total Quality Management.

Project management methodology is an important stage for the implementation of the project. The methodology indicates the possible phases and the ways of implementation for the project so that the project can serve its purpose effectively. There are different methodologies for the implementation of the projects (Snyder and Dionisio  2017). Some of the common methodologies  are PRINCE 2, Agile.  Each of the methodologies has certain advantages and disadvantages.  Different methodologies contains different stages for the implementation. Each approach has the specific way for the implementation of the objectives of the project. The right selection of the methodology has certain advantages such as , it helps to reduce  wastage of resources along  with that it also helps to save the time and helps to complete the project in the granted time (Waheed  2014).  The selection of the project management methodology depends on the requirements of the project (He et al. 2017). In this article, three project situations in the three organizations along with their requirements are given. The main objective of this paper is to choose the right methodology for the implementation of the project for the each organization. The methodology is chosen on the basis of the different requirements for the three different project and the analysis of the each methodology has been done on the basis of working principals, advantages and disadvantages. The conclusion is made on the basis of the reflection and the overall findings from the discussion.

Project management methodology is a model that provides the implementation way  for the project. The application of the project management methodology helps the project managers to evaluate the project in an effective way along with the evaluation of the long term benefits  and the possible challenges (Cheng, Malik  and Sorooshian 2017). The deployment of the methodologies is dependent on the requirements and the type of the project.

In this article the two methodologies will be discussed and the application of one of those two methodologies will be evaluated on the basis of the requirements of the three organizations. The two methodologies discussed in this article is PMBoK  and PRINCE2.

PMBoK:  Project Management Body of Knowledge is a guide for project management. It merges all the knowledge regarding the project management (Fernandes Gonçalves et al. 2017)t. The Project Management Body of Knowledge is a framework provided by  Project Management Institution and the standard maintained by it is American National Standards Institutions. PMBoK is not a methodology , it can be considered  as a good practice in the project management .

• Project Initiation
• Planning of the project
• Execution of the project
• Performance  and the monitoring of the project
• Closing of the project.

Explanation of the PMBOK

The diagram showing the inter relation of the phases in the PMBoK is referred to the figure 1 in Appendix section.

Project Initiation: In this phase, the objective and the goal of the project is defined. The initial phase of the stage starts with the discussion about the case study. The feasibility of the project scope is done in this phase. The requirements of the stakeholders are evaluated in this phase. The possible methodologies are  on the basis of the discussion with the project team and the stakeholders.

Project planning:  In this phase, the development of the stages for the compilation of the project is done.  In  order to compile the project successfully the specific blueprint is needed to be made. The setting of the goals are done in this phase. The goals can be set using two popular methods- S.M.A.R.T and CLEAR.

Project Execution: The execution of the project deals with the execution of the goals and the plans from the  previous stage. The project manager should be aware of the fact that the performance of all the processes  in this stage is done accordingly

Performance and monitoring phase: The execution part is followed by the monitoring and controlling of the executed works (Jacobs, Swink  and Linderman  2015). The performance evaluation is the important factor to determine the effectiveness of the execution. In order to do this the monitoring of the performance is needed.

Closing of the project:  This phase of the project management indicates  ending of the project. This stage includes the identification of the useful resources along with the lessons that indicates the further improvement.

PRINCE2 indicates the Projects  IN Controlled Environments. It is a structured project management method, which is developed by Office of Government Commerce, UK. PRINCE2 has seven principals which are  justification of the continued business, learning from the experience, defining the roles and responsibilities, focusing on the products, managing the project environment and  manage by the exception.

In order to cover these seven principals  there are seven  process in the PRINCE2 methodology. These are-

• Starting a project
• Initialization of the project
• Directing a project
• Controlling the phase
• Management of the product delivery
• Management of the stage  boundaries and
• Closing of the project.

The workings and the interrelations of the phases in the PRINCE2 methodology has been referred to the figure 2 in the appendix section.

There are three companies those are needed to be evaluated in this article.

Organization A is related to the technological service. It is a USA based company which manufactures the high end and high volume memory chips which is also known as wafer manufacturing. The current number of employees in this organization is 2100. The main objective of the company is to develop and expand the business  in the North and South America. The current framework, the company is using is Capability Maturity Model Integration.

Explanation of the PRINCE2

In the business situation of the organization A , a framework is already existing. There is no need for the improvisation of the current model from the organization’s end. The main objective is to expand the business in a larger scale (Anbari 2018). In this situation, the application of the PMBoK can be applicable. The use of PMBoK will indicate the way that has to be followed by the organization for the expansion of the business, rather than developing a project .

The process of application of the PMBOk in the organization A can contain the following stages:

Initiation: In this phase, the organization A can evaluate the requirements for the expansion of the business in North America and South America. The discussion can be down between the management of the organization and the stakeholders off the organization. Apart from that, the organization can consider different policies regarding the business and laws existing in these two regions. This will help the organization, to evaluate different opportunities and challenges in the expansion of the business.

Planning: This phase will develop the framework for expanding the business based on the information and the requirements gathered from the previous phase (Coppola, D’Ambrogio and Gianni  2016). The planning phase should consider the ways to eliminate the challenges and should be considered about the opportunities.

Execution: The execution of the actions in the planning phase has to be done properly  in this phase.  In this phase the organization A needs to take actions that will help to expand the business. These actions can be executed by the different officials of the organization (Antony, Rodgers  and Gijo 2016). The actions can be consist of staring a new brunch of the organization at the different parts of the North and South America. The new recruitment is needed to be done for the new brunches across the continents (Antony et al.2017). The development of the infrastructure in the new offices and the evaluating the acceptance of the products and the services form the company in the new market situation can be done by the organization in this phase.

Monitoring:  In the monitoring phase, the organization can monitor the result of the executing plans  (Beims  and Ziegenbein  2014). The monitoring  phase consists the evaluation of the executed plan, and the current market position of the company after the expansion of the business.

Closing: The closing phase denotes the compilation of the planning done by the organization. The closing of the project depends on the statues of the monitoring phase (Ertl  2014).  In case, if the  monitoring phase indicates that the implementation of the plan for expanding the business of the organization A has been successful,  and the objective of the company y has been fulfilled, the closing phase can be obtained (Solomon  2015). This phase is concern about the evaluation of the whole planning of expansion of the business (Karaman and Kurt  2015). This consists the opportunities for the further improvement of the company along with analysis of the possibilities for further expansion of the business in selected region.

The organizations and the methodologies applied in each situation

The process of expansion of the business for the organization A has been described through a diagram referred to the Appendix  3.

The organization  B is related to the construction business. The organization B is an European company which has its base  at Paris in France. The company has currently 300 employees. The main objective of the company is to increase the  number of the construction project within the Europe. The director of the company wants to adopt a business case of every projects.

In this case, a common project management method can be obtained that can be applicable for all the projects obtained by the organization (Bentley  2015). The organization follows the Euroocdes for the construction project (Roudias  2015). However, this standard represents the quality of the work done by the organization B, but does not provide the project management methodology for implementation of the project.

PRINCE2 methodology can be followed  for fulfilling the objectives of the organization B. The PRINCE2 methodology ensures the compilation of the construction projects in a specific and sustainable way, along with that it also ensures maintaining  the Eurocodes standard. This will ensures the quality and the effectiveness of the each projects

Starting of the project:  In this phase , the organization B can gather all the relevant requirements required for the particular construction project (Sabet, Adams  and Yazdani  2016). The transparency in the requirements will help to develop the planning phases for the organization.

Initialization of the project:  This phases consists of planning the project based on the gathered requirements (Karaman  and Kurt 2015). The planning of all the projects of the organization B is needed to be relevant with the methods of the construction business (Huang 2017). It should also be compatible with the Eurocodes for the construction business.

Project direction: This phase is concerned about the direction for the execution of the project. In this phase, the execution of the project is done on the basis of the requirements  and the planning of the construction projects (Krysi?ski  and Miller 2016). The accuracy of this phase is dependent on the  correctness of the planning and requirements gathering for the development of the project.

Controlling: The controlling of the construction project indicates that the supervision of the executing has been done in a proper way. The quality  of the project is dependent on this phase.

Delivery management: This phase is concerned about delivering the quality products to the consumers.

Closing of the project: After the compilation of all the stages the closing the construction project is done.

Organization C is related to the financial services. It is an Australia based company with 800 employees. The company has the existing business model which is effective , however, the main demand of the company is to improve the quality of service provided by them (Eastham et al.  2014) . In this case, the Six sigma can be deployed for the organization C as, it is concerned about the improvement of the services.

Six sigma is a quality control development. There are two project management methodologies which is based on the six sigma (Antony, Snee and Hoerl 2017). One of them is DMAIC which is applicable to improve the quality of the existing system. DMAIC( Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle) can be applicable for the organization as , it is only concerned about the improvement of the existing plan. . The processes of DMAIC is referred to the figure 3 in the appendix. The organization has to follow five different phases to implement the DMAIC:

System definition: This phase is concerned about gaining the knowledge about the requirements.

Measurement of the key aspects: This phase is concerned about the collection of the relevant data.

Analysis: The analysis of the requirements and the collected data are evaluated to know the cause and effects of  all the actions taken in the organization.

Improvement: The analysis of the data can indicate the opportunities for the further improvement of the process.

Control: After  detecting the areas for the improvement , the opportunities for the control of the future processes are needed to be evaluated.

Organization A (PMBoK):

• The organization is dealing with the PMBoK  for the first time. It can be assumed tat the project team members may have no knowledge about the PMBoK.
• In this framework, the requirements cannot be changed in the middle of the implementation.

Steps to mitigate the difficulties:

• Before the adoption of the PMBoK frame work , the organization should give a overview of the whole process to the project management team.
• The requirements gathering  should be done in a proper way and the clarity in the requirements should be present at the beginning of the phase.

Organization  B(PRINCE2)

• This methodology is concerned with the change in the environment of the project management. The environment changes frequently with the change in the requirements of the consumers.
• Heavy documentations and the planning  in this methodology requires extra time.
• In this method the management of the risk management  cannot be done properly.

Steps to mitigate the difficulties:

• The requirements gathering should be done properly so that the chances of the changes can be mitigated.
• A separate risk management plan needs to be implemented along with deployment of the methodology.

Organization C (Six Sigma)

• There may be the lack of proper understanding of the six sigma methodology.
• The significant issues about this approach is that no definition of the leader of the project is defined.
• There is a chance of poor execution of the quality management plan through six sigma.

Steps to mitigate the difficulties;

• Group of experts are needed to be indulged in the implementation phase.
• The implementation of the six sigma is done by the experts and a knowledgeable person is needed to be chosen as the leader of the project.

Organization A:

• The expansion of the business of the organization can be done in a sustainable way.
• The evaluation of the chances for the organization along with further development can be obtained.

Organization B:

• The organization can get more projects as the implementation of the PRINCE2 methodology helps to improve the quality and way of developing the construction projects.
• Then organization can follow a common guideline for the development of the projects.

Organization C:

• The quality of the financial services provided  by the organization can be improved.
• The improved service of the organization can help it to gain a favorable position in the market.

Conclusion

It can be concluded form the above discussion that the implementation of the project management methodologies will help to achieve the goals of the companies. The selection of the methodology  has been done on the basis of the requirements of the organizations. There are certain advantages and the disadvantages . Those advantages and disadvantages are evaluated on the context of the companies. It can be said from the discussion of the article the adaptation of those methodologies will be helpful for the  positive modification of three companies.

References

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