Project Management

Project Management

 

Introduction

This paper discusses related the project management concept in regards to address the issues which occur in the implementation of the project. Similarly, there are certain issues arise with the project of flash mob dance events which is organized for a purpose of charity. The aim of this project is to support the homeless people and people with mental and physical disability. Other than that, it also aims to provide the basic necessity to poor people (Burke, 2013). In regards to creating awareness in the Manchester, the flash mob is organized. Due to including too many people, the confusion among the workers in different function result in inefficient and delay in decision making. Such practice could affect the business negatively.

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In concern to this issue, the project manager identifies three concepts to examine the issues. It involves the project organization structure, stakeholder’s analysis, stakeholder management plan and communication plan etc (Bellanta and Piper, 2014). On the basis of issues, there is a certain question that needs to address by the project manager. It involves how to coordinate the workers in the flash mob and how to reduce the delay in decision-making process so that project should be implemented at right time.

Course concepts and principles

In order to develop the project of the flash mob, there is various concepts and principle is studied. According to Kerzner (2013), work breakdown structure plays the more significant role to achieve the project objective. It is because WBS supports the team to organize the work into the manageable sections which could be controlled and monitored easily. In this method, responsibility allotment to the scheduling of work is done which proves to be efficient for the project. Likewise, Zwikael and Smyrk (2011) stated that charity project is divided into the four deliverable tasks such as dance performance, street collection, and providing information to people about the cause. At the end, charity society is the last and important task in the project as it involves offering support to the needy once. Besides that, Browning (2010) illustrated that RACI chart is another principle or model which also support the project. Basically, RACI chart is considered as a model which determines the roles and responsibility to perform the project. As per that, it assists to set the expectation of people in the project. Thus, the roles and responsibility are delegated as per the skills and expectation of people. In RACI model, R stands responsible, A is accountable, C is consulted and I stand informed. So, it can be stated that project manager with this model successfully implement the project through divide the activities properly to the specialized people and coordinate the activities. Therefore, these allow for achieving the positive outcomes. In regards to this project, Gervais et al., (2011) depicted that the principle of preparing the budget is one of the essential components which allows creating the plan in advance regards to how much money needs to spend on the particular activity. Likewise, project manager in flash mob decides to spend on awareness is 62£, music 63£ and27£ on snacks and water. Thus, the estimated budget helps the manager to control its extra expenses so that project will be executed on the stimulated budget. In favor of this concept, Wampler (2010) pointed that budgeting is also contributes towards the accomplishment of the long-term objective by designing activity with allotted cost. In concern to this, the manager also prepares themselves that they need to develop the particular activity in that budget without compensating the quality. Thus, this advantage achieves with the preparation of the budget.

In support to this study, Ferretti (2016) interpreted that stakeholder analysis tends to be crucial study point as it collects data about different stakeholder and its interest area and accordingly, project manager develop task and allocate it. However, flash mob includes key stakeholders in the form of dancers, committee members, students union etc. it is identified that different stakeholders are quite clear about their respective profiles and responsibility which creates the less chances of confusion. But accordance to stakeholder, Sedereviciute, and Valentini (2011) argued that project coordination is performed because of the communication plan. The project manager uses the face-to-face meeting to communicate the status of the project. Furthermore, phone calls, the social network also follow the manager to make inform the stakeholders about the changes in the project. At the same time, there are certain principles of project management which every manager follows in the implementation of the project whether it is small or big. These principles are project structure, definition phase, goals clarity and project status, risk recognition, roles & responsibility of project manager and project outcomes & results. With the incorporation of these elements, the manager always develops the right project framework which contributes towards the success and achievement.

From the above discussion, it is stated that different concepts, principle provide unique advantage and value to the project. However, there are various concepts & models like WBS, budgets, stakeholder analysis and RACI model use to successfully execute the charity event. It is fact that any project whether it is business, charity or construction project, each & every project needs to prepare the schedule, budgets, and stakeholders’ analysis in order to achieve the right outcomes of the project (Holler et al., 2014). Thus, the above mention concepts, principle are the essential elements and components of the project management.

Reflective assessment: Ideas and Insights

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This part shows the implementation of all above concepts and principle in the context to flash mob study. It means that study indicates that how concepts are applied on to the charity project of Manchester. The concept of project schedule includes the two elements which are WBS and Gantt chart (Sharp et al., 2012). In regards to WBS applies to the charity project in a way to divide the activities into tasks such as dance performance, street collection, charity society (Feeding India) and Indian society of Manchester. These each task is delivering as per the schedule and budget. For instances, dance performances require the props, costumes, music etc. Similarly, dancers also require a practice session, snacks etc. Such activities cost is decided in budget and time allocation is done in scheduling etc. Other than that Gantt chart includes the task name, start date, end date and assigned person and duration to accomplish the task. Through this manner, project manager easily manageable each complex task. It is same happen in the case of the flash mob as group member already clear about their roles and responsibility due to having a Gantt chart which mentions detail description of each task from their starting to end point.

Furthermore, RACI chart is another concept which is discussed and now it is implemented in the charity project (Daim et al., 2012). However, project manager executes this project through aligning the roles with the expectation of people. With the help of this model, project manager divides the task and accordingly, heads are allotted. Likewise, the dancer is responsible for getting right things. They also guide that to whom they need to account. At the time of issues, to whom need to consult and informed. Thus, the RACI model guides individual regarding how to conduct or implement the particular activity.

Budgeting of project is also considered as a crucial concept in terms to save the maximum investment of company. Additionally, project manager for the charity flash mob prepares the budget as it gives 62£ to awareness, 63£ music and 27£ to snacks and water. But, the project is accomplished by the manager in contributing 57£ in awareness, 53£ in music and 22£ in snacks and water (Smith et al., 2012). Thus, differences clearly show that project manager uses effective schedule, charts to perform each task successfully and timely without including any expenses. Such result in reducing the overall cost of the project.

Other than that, stakeholder analysis is performed to identify the goals and tactics. However, dancers performances are determined based on the attraction of crowd and tactics like the use of props and stunts. While committee members’ goal is evaluated through response to audiences and coordination in each activity. At the end, feeding India goals and tactics are identified based on ability to collect maximum funds for charity. Hence, this way, the stakeholder competency, and ability are examined. In a similar manner, a communication plan is also contributing maximum benefits in the project management as without flowing of information, the positive result of the project wouldn’t expect. To deal with the confusion issue in flash mob, manager coordinate with dancers through meeting and telephone which helps them to take a relevant and appropriate decision.

Project manager in a charity project focuses the concept of risk and uncertainty plan in order to address the issues and uncertainties. Project manager divides the risk into various parts such as natural risk (climate change), external (no permission to perform), procurement risk (lack of availability). Based on such risk, the manager creates the alternative so that effects of such risk could be reduced (Shukla-Mehta et al., 2010). At the same time, project manager responds to risk either avoid such risk or reduce the effect of risk.

In case of the flash mob, the issue of confusion among the workers exists. To address such risk, the manager accepts the risk and adopts the effective communication network that smoothly functions the operation of the project.

Thus, the project manager applies concepts successfully and extracts the relevant outcome of charity project.

Key Learning points

The charity project brings lots of learning for me as I get an opportunity to understand detailing about the process of successful implementation of the project. Moreover, I learned about different concepts, the principle of project management such as WBS, budgeting, risk management, stakeholder analysis etc. I also learned about the importance of communication in the project for avoiding delays. This project allows me to identify the various communication techniques such face-to-face meeting, telephonic meeting and LAN network etc. At the same time, I also learned related to project schedule concept such as WBS, Gantt chart which defines the project scope. This concept would help my professional and personal career to manage each task and activity (Peter, 2012). The main aspect which I learned from this project is that every project whether it is large or small requires a proper project framework like definite structure, goal clarity and tactics etc. based on such practice only, individual achieve the project success.

I also learned the significance of preparation of the budget in the project. It is found that budget guides the manager to perform the activity in a specific time period with allotted cost. It is fact that project with right implementation always brings relevant outcomes. In regards to project management, I study all the concepts and principle which is relevant to make project successful. From the project flash mob, I learned that teamwork is the important element for making any project successful. Such team spirit could only achieve by developing the clear structure of the project, mention roles, and responsibility of each team member. Thus, it was a learning experience for me in regards to getting deep understanding of project management and areas which assist towards the accomplishment of the project.

Critical reflection

The above learning gives me numerous experiences in regards to managing different projects. The learning adds value to me as I get a chance to polish and strengthen my skills. There are various skills which I achieved from this project. These are communication, leading and analytical skill etc. I learned communication skill through informing different stakeholders about the status of the project while leading skill is strengthened through guiding the individual is related to how the particular activity is conducted. Through solving the issues of the team, my analytical skills get sharp. These experiences increase my competency level in a way to attempt any project (Greiff et al., 2013). It also helps my future career as I want to work with the reputed organization. So in that case, such skills will assist me to perform the activity in an efficient manner. My aim for future is to help the needy once with conduct charity project so it can be stated that flash mob project of Manchester proves to be useful for me to perform something unique and exclusive.

References

Bellanta, M. and Piper, A., 2014, July. Looking Flash: Disreputable Women’s Dress and ‘Modernity’, 1870–1910. In History Workshop Journal (Vol. 78, No. 1, pp. 58-81). USA: Oxford University Press.

Browning, T.R., 2010. On the alignment of the purposes and views of process models in project management. Journal of Operations Management28(4), pp.316-332.

Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.

Daim, T.U., Ha, A., Reutiman, S., Hughes, B., Pathak, U., Bynum, W. and Bhatla, A., 2012. Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams. International Journal of Project Management30(2), pp.199-212.

Ferretti, V., 2016. From stakeholders analysis to cognitive mapping and Multi-Attribute Value Theory: An integrated approach for policy support. European Journal of Operational Research253(2), pp.524-541.

Gervais, S., Heaton, J.B. and Odean, T., 2011. Overconfidence, compensation contracts, and capital budgeting. The Journal of Finance66(5), pp.1735-1777.

Greiff, S., Holt, D. and Funke, J., 2013. Perspectives on problem solving in cognitive research and educational assessment: analytical, interactive, and collaborative problem solving. Journal of Problem Solving (The)5, pp.71-91.

Holler, R., Culling, I., Delwadia, R., Mamut, P., Crowe, M., Hanson, D., Boudreaux, P., Gilkerson, D., Farr, E. and Odenwelder, J., Versionone, Inc., 2014. Methods and systems for performing project schedule forecasting. U.S. Patent 8,875,088.

Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Peter, E.E., 2012. Critical thinking: Essence for teaching mathematics and mathematics problem solving skills. African Journal of Mathematics and Computer Science Research5(3), pp.39-43.

Sedereviciute, K. and Valentini, C., 2011. Towards a more holistic stakeholder analysis approach. Mapping known and undiscovered stakeholders from social media. International Journal of Strategic Communication5(4), pp.221-239.

Sharp, N., Enzi, J., Fountoulakis, E., Lam, B. and Rabbior, M.C., International Business Machines Coporation, 2012. System and method for displaying gantt charts with other project management tools. U.S. Patent 8,245,153.

Shukla-Mehta, S., Miller, T. and Callahan, K.J., 2010. Evaluating the effectiveness of video instruction on social and communication skills training for children with autism spectrum disorders: A review of the literature. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities25(1), pp.23-36.

Smith, W.K., Besharov, M.L., Wessels, A.K. and Chertok, M., 2012. A paradoxical leadership model for social entrepreneurs: Challenges, leadership skills, and pedagogical tools for managing social and commercial demands. Academy of Management Learning & Education11(3), pp.463-478.

Wampler, B., 2010. Participatory budgeting in Brazil: Contestation, cooperation, and accountability. USA: Penn State Press.

Zwikael, O. and Smyrk, J.R., 2011. Project management for the creation of organisational value. London: Springer.

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