Assignment Sample on BMG835 Management Research Methods

Research Title

Influence and incorporation of technology to better the outcomes of the project leadership and project management outcomes

Introduction and Rationale

            Project management is one of the oldest subdisciplines of management and business administration and over the years, the profession has changed a great deal to meet the high demands of the complex business environment of today’s world. In all the domains of business whether it is sales, marketing, operations, and the project management – the use of technology has been immense. Technological incorporation in most of the organization has been a strategic move to meet with market needs and in some, it has been done for the synchronization of the internal processes of the organization (Adzmi and Hassan, 2018). However, project management being a timed job and it takes place only over some months and even to some years and as it is not continuous like the permanent like the other domains of the organization – there is failure to give importance at times. But many business houses are installing technologies and advanced networks just for the project management purpose. For example, for a product development – a lot of quality checks are needed along with completion of tasks by the determined timelines and that is why, a simple technology of digital idea-board or scrum board will be necessary (Křečková et al. 2020). Technology in other words, helps in the automation, keeps away the human errors as well as reduces the burden of repetitive tasks in testing and data analysis. And due to all these reasons, the small to medium size companies to big corporation have started applying the technology leadership in project management. The technologies are increasingly taken up by the organizations are the big analytics to understand the needs, scheduling software to improve project flow and collaboration applications for virtual team meetings and task communications (Mesároš and Mandičák, 2017). The quality management software is also important in certain ways to project management. But the barriers to technology leadership in project management are many as well that prevents the small and medium companies specially to incorporate the same in their project management practices. High costs of new technology and high expenditure of technology installations are one of the first reasons because of which the companies with low financial capital refrain from this. Secondly, lack of qualified information technology specialists and data analysts blocks the flow of the technology operations in many organizations. Thirdly lack of strategic investment in technology is another very big problem (Li and Li, 2017). Finally, lack of awareness and lack of research-oriented business practices is a behavioral barrier to the non-incorporation of technologies in project management practices. Thus, there are a number of perceptual, behavioral, technical as well as the financial blocks that prevents the technology incorporation in project management by companies which are very important to understand as well. That is why, in this study, the importance of the project management practices and its outcomes, whether bettered or not, in a substantial manner by the technology leadership – has been studied in an extensive manner. The different technologies in different areas of business practices with respect to project management and leadership will be analyzed in this research work.

Research Question/ Hypothesis, Aims and Objectives

The research questions are as follows –

1. Why is technology important in the business project undertaking?
2. Does the technology incorporation help in the development of positive outcomes in project management practices?
3. What are the various barriers and the enhancers plus facilitators to technology integration in present day project management practices?

The research objectives are –

1. To study and find out the importance of the technology installations in the business project undertaking.
2. To understand whether or not the technology installations and use can help in bringing out the positive outcomes in the project management practices.
3. To understand the facilitators, barriers as well as the enhancers to the technology incorporation in project management business practices.

The aim of the project is to understand whether the various factors pertaining to the technology incorporation and leadership provides positive or negative outcomes in terms of the project management. And then the knowledge and skills gained from this research project can be used by the company in form their practices in a proper way and manner.

Literature Review

            Ab Malik, Kassim and Hairuddin (2019) focusses to understand the importance of information technology in the betterment of the project performance and the strategies that is important to understand. There are various stakeholders involved in a certain project and it is very important that their performances are balanced and assessed in an unremitting manner to prevent any kind of risks and the delays in the achievement of the project tasks. And that is why, according to the authors of this research, the customization of the employee monitoring software can help in understanding the performance gaps within the timelines of the reasons for stoppages, task failures and other issues can also be easily entered with the help of the software. And thus, in a way, the information technology practices actually helps in the improvement of the documentation practices in project management and the risks can be averted by the use of technology leadership, according to this research. Even the technology experts can be playing the key roles that involves the moderation of the chatrooms in the collaborator applications and that is how, technology can also help in the betterment of the communication that is critical to note and understand. According to the research, the project management software themselves can act as the quality management systems because new technologies often show the key performance indicators or the KPIs that will be helpful for the project performance and progress evaluation. Even the federal governments are investing in installations of these software and technologies in the government educational institutions. This is because of the purpose these technologies serve in the project management fields and in delivery of the products and the services on time, as planned before in the goals of the project. Thus, there are many factors that act as strong reasons for the technology installations in the government project management setups.

            Hargaden et al. (2019) studies the importance of blockchain technologies in the development of project performances with respect to the large-scale construction projects. As risk management and mitigation as well as health safety management and environmental management are the major aspects that concerns the project management in construction industry, there needs to technology assistance. The blockchain technology can be used to reduce these risks in certain ways by building on the information management systems as well as the information development systems correctly. And also, the applications in the blockchain technologies helps in smart contract fill-ups and the laws, protocols are always in the alerts if something goes wrong. And thus, the technology part in the construction project management helps in the legalization of the processes, thus averting the risks, if any is possible or is rising, at any moment. Secured verified transactions are possible at different stages of the construction project and that is why, Blockchain technology is of vast use respect to not only this industry but project management of many others that is important to understand. The blockchain system is so secure that the database and the data inside cannot be hacked in any way and that is why, it has gained so much importance in businesses and their important project managements. Examples are digital ledger technology have features like anonymity, time stamps, distributable, programmable, security and the unanimous that makes its applicable and best choice for secure project management in many industries that is important to comprehend. The business practices, now matter how large or limited, should be following the transparency and the crystal clear regulatory corporate laws and that is why, security and trust are the major important aspects of the same which is to be there. And the Blockchain technology actually brings with it all these features that adds to the brand image and to the brand trust as well, which extremely vital.

            Reja and Varghese (2019) found out the importance of internet of things IoT (5^th generation) on the sustainability and the progression of the project management in the constructions and information technology industry. The project management collaboration between the stakeholders involves interacting on instant messengers and collaboration are also needed for the Building Information Modeling that is also known as the BIM in order to gain understanding of the project progress and whether the goals have been met or not in proper manner. That is why, not only in the onsite but also in the offsite in case of construction industry or other industries, the automations are needed for better communication and process or activity tracking. According to the researchers, the technology integrations such as the Internet of thinking helps in the project management in various industries such as energy, agriculture, health care, manufacturing, productions as well as the advertisement and media industry. Other than this predictive maintenance, building information modelling, augmented reality, remote usage monitoring are the various technology aspects that comes to the picture of project management. According to this research, the companies from the above-mentioned industries should be progressively and strategically investing in the sensors and the detector systems in order prevent risks and reduce the wastes that will finally improve the quality and outcomes of the project in a great manner. Also, the technologies installations such as the wireless access points, web services and the radio towers plus the satellites and servers becomes important by the government of the country to help the various industries with their project management in a major way and manner.

            Thompson (2018) aims to study the importance of social media in the development of the project lifecycles with rather positive and bettered outcomes and finds out that the marketing as well as internal communications is greatly helped while the project is going on. In the market, an awareness is already created while the product is in the manufacturing stage or in the prototype stage that is important to understand very much and critically. Taking feedbacks form the interested and the potential consumer segments is important and this can help in avoiding the errors in product designing during the project development phase. And that is why, both unstructured interviews as well as focus groups can be used through Skype and social media video calls – in order to receive the necessary feedbacks from the potential customers and the clients’ segments in social media. And this will help in two major aspects – organizational learning, continuous quality improvement as well as knowledge management that is critical to understand. Moreover, the consumer segments form the potential markets will be engaged and this would act like marketing as well that will create awareness about the new product or service in development. Even the social media surveys can be important very much and extremely critical to the project success.

Research Design and Methodology

Sampling – random sampling will be used recruit about 10 project management experts from different industries and companies.

Inclusion criteria

1. Must be from United Kingdom
2. Must be having at least 10 years of experience as project manager
3. Must be having some experience with some technology use in the project management field.

Exclusion criteria

1. Not from United Kingdom
2. Not having at least 10 years of experience as project manager
3. Not having some experience with some technology use in the project management field.

Data collection

Semi structured interviews with 10 questions each and of 40 minutes will be done with each of the participants. This will help in gaining the right ideas about the blocks and the awareness of theirs with respect to the technology applications in project management industry. Moreover, the preferences towards certain technology and avoidance of others will be subjective as every of the experts form the project management field, coming from different companies – will have different choices. And that is why, the choice of this qualitative methodology is very important.

Data analysis

Thematic analysis will be done using the coding method and important aspects of the technology incorporation with respect to project management discipline and practices will be found out. Each will be analyzed and examined further.

Business Value

            The research is of immense business importance because of a number of great reasons. It will give the industries and the companies from different segments of the business – the necessary knowledge and the idea about the technology tools to be used in the project management practices. There are so many areas in project management that are actually prone to multiple risks such as delays, expenditure of excess money and health safety issues. And that is why, there are many reasons to incorporate the blockchain or the monitoring as well as the smart communication technologies (Pastor, Olaso and Fuente, 2018). For safer financial transactions and the safer flow of the projects through the different stages and to create a buzz in the market while the product is being designed – the necessity of the technology becomes absolutely indispensable. And that is why, this research project will add to the value of the businesses from across the world and in all segments and industries. Yes, the budgets and the expenses for the technology integration will be cost ineffective for some companies and effective for some but the recommendations for strategic investments and smart investments in technology will also be done by this research (Kasemsap, 2018). And that is how, the technology integration will be more profitable on the longer and the short term. In the short term, the health risks, the project risks will be avoided and in long term, the delays and quality of the projects will be improved to a great level and that is why, the profits of the investment will surpass the financial ask. Hence, it can be understood that this research project is actually helpful from any perspectives and will be adding values to business worlds and project management practices. Moreover, the evidence-based practices can be taken up by the organizations based on this research work and by saving the money on wastage and risks during the project, the technology investments can be made rightly that is an important reason. In addition to this, the experts from the project management field will be sharing the necessary insight about their jobs and their professional lives and this will also provide knowledge and skills to the young project management experts who lacks the experience of using technologies in their field. And this research informed practice will become their success instruments.

Indicative Timetable

The project will be given by the mentioned timelines and as per the stages, the parts of the research will be finished.

Ethical Considerations

            As human subjects (project managers) will be included in the project, the beneficence, non-maleficence, privacy, confidentiality, and justice parameters will be complied with, in the research work focusing on project management. The distribution of the resources will be done in a justified and equitable manner that is important to understand. The permission for this scientific business research will be taken from the ethical committee based in United Kingdom and no harm, under any case, will be done to subjects. The rights will be respected by the researchers of this work.

References

Ab Malik, A. M., Kassim, E. S., and Hairuddin, H. 2019. Project Strategy and Performance: Moderating Effects of Information Technology Use and Position. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 18(6), 1-6.

Adzmi, R. M., and Hassan, Z. 2018. A theoretical framework of critical success factors on information technology project management during project planning.

Hargaden, V., Papakostas, N., Newell, A., Khavia, A., and Scanlon, A. 2019. The role of blockchain technologies in construction engineering project management. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Kasemsap, K., 2018. The roles of information technology and knowledge management in project management metrics. In Global business expansion: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications (pp. 1191-1221). IGI Global.

Křečková, J., Kennedy, D. M., Brožová, H., and Rydval, J. 2020. Project management communication planning: An improved optimization model with additional recipients and individualized weights. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

Li, B.Q. and Li, Z., 2017. Office Automation Sub-Summary of the Work and the Project Management System. In International Conference on Mechanical, Electronic, Control and Automation Engineering (pp. 46-48).

Mesároš, P. and Mandičák, T., 2017, October. Exploitation and benefits of BIM in construction project management. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 245, No. 6, p. 062056). IOP Publishing.

Pastor, I.G., Olaso, J.R.O. and Fuente, F.S., 2018. Unveiling the Opportunities of Using Blockchain in Project Management. Research and Education in Project Management (Bilbao, 2018), 22.

Reja, V. K., and Varghese, K. 2019. Impact of 5G technology on IoT applications in construction project management. In ISARC. Proc. Int. Symp. Autom. Robot. Constr (Vol. 36, pp. 209-217).

Thompson, K., 2018. A framework for using social media in the practice of project management (Doctoral dissertation, Bournemouth University).

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