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Final Paper

The document discusses the phases of project management including defining and organizing, planning, executing, and closing. It then provides an example of how a family business that installs artificial turf and irrigation systems manages projects. While the business owner has over 13 years of experience, the planning and closing phases are not fully implemented. This can lead to budget issues during projects and limited formal recording of project knowledge. It also requires new employees to rely heavily on on-site training from the experienced owner.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
142 views6 pages

Final Paper

The document discusses the phases of project management including defining and organizing, planning, executing, and closing. It then provides an example of how a family business that installs artificial turf and irrigation systems manages projects. While the business owner has over 13 years of experience, the planning and closing phases are not fully implemented. This can lead to budget issues during projects and limited formal recording of project knowledge. It also requires new employees to rely heavily on on-site training from the experienced owner.

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Final Paper: Part 1

Project management has been practiced for thousands of years. From the creation of the

pyramids to remodeling a kitchen, it was not until the 1950s that project management became

formalized. There are a lot of practices and principles in being a project manager. The process in

handling a project can be different, depending on the type of project. But this paper will explain

the fundamental practices and principles of what project management possess. These

fundamentals can work for large and small projects. A project is temporary, the model for it runs

linear in direction, it has a beginning and an end. A model of a project can have multiple phases,

but a basic model has defining and organizing the project, planning the project, managing project

execution, and closing the project. The overall goal of organizing a project, is to improve the

success rate of the project. And the person that helps manages the project is called a project

manager.

Before going into a project, it is important to define and organize the project. Defining

the project can mean different things depending on the context. One of the defining factors, is

figuring out what is the organizational culture. “Organizational culture is shaped by the common

experiences of members of the organization.” (Slideshow Module 2, pg. 3) This is important for

a project, because knowing the culture helps the project management have knowledge about the

interactions between individuals. If any action that the manager makes affects the culture norms

of an organization, it can also affect the progress of the project. It is also important “to clearly

define the project objectives as thoroughly as possible.” (Managing Projects Large and Small,

pg. 3) This is important because this helps figure out the influences that happen within the

project and gives a direction to the project team. The influences can include the stakeholders and

the environmental factors. While the direction of the project team can help “organize the right
people and all necessary resources around those objectives.” (Managing Projects Large and

Small, pg. 3) Organizing the team involves knowledge about the structure of the organization

and the personnel that will be involved in the project. Also, the defining and organization phase,

helps create a scope, that gives an estimated budget and time of the project.

After the beginning phase of defining and organizing, next would-be the middle phase

that involves the planning and managing the execution of the project. The planning process and

the executing process can run in a cycle. The planning process of the project is an important part

of the project, it provides a framework from defining and organizing phase of the projects. It

helps to create a written charter that can mandate actions, clarifies objectives, make it time-

bound, specify project scope. The planning phase also helps with risk management that can

happen, by questioning assumptions and issues that can happen in the project. It also can be used

to revise the project daily, to help the project management prevent scope creep from happening

when executing the project. The planning phase can also develop a communication plan. A

communication plan will help the interaction between the project team and the stakeholders. It

also the groundwork for helping to set up meetings and attendance policies within the project

team. The planning phase can also set up policies or rules within the project to help prevent

issues that have predicted would happen in the project. “It guides the execution of a project by

translating objectives into actionable items; and it provides a baseline (of target) for the

resources, activities, and quality of the project.” (Module 3 Slideshow, pg. 3)

After the planning process ends, then it goes to the execution phase of the project. During

the execution phase of the project, it is the project managers job to monitor and a lead people to

solve problem. He/she will help guide the team members to the end of the planned project. If it is

a new team then there will be a team development stages, forming, storming, norming,
performing, and adjourning. If there are any challenges within the project that was not discussed

in the planning phase, it would be the project manager to be a leader and provide a solution to the

problem. The style of leadership that the manager can use would be a situational approach or an

adaptive approach to handle challenges on the field. Most challenges can be technical and

interpersonal problems. With those approaches, it is important to boost productivity by

improving morale by solving those problems. The project manager is also a manager, by

knowing the boundaries of power that he/she has within the project. For example, if a project

needs to be changed that could affect the deliverable, then it will need to get the approval from

the executives or the sponsor. The manager is there to manage time, scope, budget, quality, and

people. If any thing in the project changes the plan, then it would be discussed with the decision

makers.

The final phase of the project management would be the “close down.” The closing of the

project is an important part of an organization’s growth. It is used to hand over the project to the

authorities to take control and to provide information to the organization. There are different

ways that the project team can hand over the project. The team can just hand it over to

themselves and start the operations from the project. They could also terminate the project

because resource problems. The most common and the most difficult, would be the team

integrating the project. There are different ways to hand off the project, but the three above are

the most common.

It does not matter if the project is a success or a failure, it would be the information that

came from the project that can help with future projects. It can also used as an asset for the

organization. It creates recorded data that can help train future project managers specifically for
their organization. Gathering information for the end phase of a failed project, helps with any

legal issues and possibly the relationship with the stakeholders.

Even if an organization implements their project management model it does not

guarantee a successful project. There are always factors that can affect the project, those factors

can be external or internal. The model and all the planning are there to limit those factors as

much as possible. The implementation of those plans is the most important factor that creates the

change in the environment.

Part Two

This class can be implemented into my daily life, working for the family business. The

small business installs artificial turf and irrigation systems. It has a crew of about 3-4 people that

execute the projects and most of the projects are residential. So, most of our sponsors or

customers are homeowners. An approval to start the project, usually is shown with a formal

signature of a contract. The maturity level of the project manager can be rated as an expert with

over 13 years of experience. The main concept for the end of each project is to get a satisfactory

response from the homeowner, which is shown with a 5-star review on the internet. But after

working with the company off and on, I was able to observe some phases of the project

management model is missing.

The two phases that are missing is the planning and part of the closing phase of the

project. When starting the project, it would involve meeting the potential sponsor and defining

the objectives of the potential project. This would then be formally introduced to the customer in

a form of an estimate, that would give an estimate budget, time, and scope of the project. When

the customer accepts the estimate, then the only planning part of the project would be scheduling

the project. There is no work breakdown structure or written charter, before executing the
project. This led to delays and budget problems during the project. But even with delays and

budget problems that happens in the project, scope creep would rarely happen for the projects.

The reason for not having scope creep in the projects is because of two factors, the projects are

too small and any major changes that are to happen in the project must be signed on a formal

contract. So, once the sponsor signs the contract, the scope cannot be changed easily. This makes

the planning phase of the project only effecting the budget, time, and quality. But, with the

experience of the team leader/project manager/boss of having of 13 years of doing over a

hundred yards, the planning phase may not be needed. The planning phase would help but with

the safety net of the contract that prevents scope creep from happening. But if the project is small

and easy enough, with an expert leading the team, then the planning phase can be overlooked.

Not having a planning phase also can limit the closing phase of the project. After

finishing the project, it would be handed over to the sponsor/homeowner. But the only recorded

evidence of the project would be the signed contract. This gives limited formal knowledge that

has been recorded. This can create a lot of short comings for the organization. One of the short

comings, is the process of training new team members. This would put more power and

responsibility on the team leader to provide on-site training for the new member. This can be

considered a good thing, but since the team leader is also the manager and boss. The person does

not have enough time to have a one-on-one training with new members. This creates a culture of

reliance on the leader to direct them to how to do their job. Which would limit more time from

the leader.

Another factor that can affect the organization, would be the operation of the company.

Shovel’s break, inventory has been used, and sometimes we get new inventory. All those things
can affect the operations of future projects. If none of those things are recorded, then the business

is only reacting to problems that cropped up instead of preventing any future problems.

The final factor, it can limit the growth of the company. Even though having the

customers basic information helps with our contact list. It does not help if the company ever

wants to expand, because for the company to ever get bigger jobs it would need to have a

planning phase and an affective training program. Having knowledge from previous jobs would

help solidify policies and rules that are affective for the project. So, after a period the company

will be a well-oiled machine.

For now, the small company is running well, even with those two phases are missing in

the managing of the project. The main reason for that is because of the boss of the company. He

can communicate with customers, and the team members about the project. He also has a mental

contact list of places that can provide resources for the project, this is also related to providing an

estimate on each job. And with his 13 years of experience doing installations, he has the

leadership qualifications to solve technical and interpersonal problems that might happen on the

job. The downside to this setup, is that it relies too heavily on an individual instead on a team.

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