The Value Of Project Management

Pinto (2010) defines a project as a unique venture with a beginning and end, conducted by people to meet established goals within parameters of cost, schedule and quality, and a process as referring to ongoing, day-to-day activities in which an organization engages while producing goods or services (p. 4-5). A project will result in an end item or goal whereas a process will consist of multiple actions to be completed with other actions that will result in the completion of a product or goal. If the project was to construct a ladder, the project manager would initiate the project by establishing the requirements for the type of ladder construction, skill level required for construction, establish a budget, and develop a timeline. Once the …show more content…
According to Shenhar and Dvir (2007) project management is one of the fastest growing disciplines in organizations today (p. 93). A project manager should have the ability to fulfill a project according to the firm’s strategy by leading and encouraging the project team throughout each process of the project. As a project management leader the ability to guide and provide logical concepts to the project team by inspiring and influencing the team members in reaching project goals is enviable to managers that wish to perform business as well. Bullen, Abraham, Galup, Gallagher, & Zweig (2009) reported on their research that firms who values project management skills ranked project management competencies and leadership skills in their top qualifications for new hires. Globalization and the internet are changing the way organizations are conducting business and the culture of business will forever be changed due to the necessity of business diversification and project oriented products and markets. Corporations are utilizing project management to expand into new markets, expand markets, and improve existing goods. A favorable result of firms is the ability to retrieve data of lessons learned from previous projects using project management skills (Shenhar and Dvir, …show more content…
The first detriment is the establishment of a project team where a project manager is required to construct a project team to assist in fulfilling a firm’s strategic project. The task of identifying all the key players from other departments is the first hurdle. Next is recruiting the individuals to be on the project and seeing if they are available to be on your project if not already on another project or their manager decided that their immediate position requires their full attention and are not available. Cammarano (1997) state that a pitfall for projects is when an employee works for his manager and the project manager at the same time, whereas the employee will be conflicted in their requirements and the project will be neglected. The only way to overcome this situation is to establish the project manager to have more authority over the other manager. The other detriment identified is keeping the project on schedule. According to Pinto (2010) projects fail at a rate of over 65% and those that went over budget fell behind schedule (p. 8). Managers underestimate the time required for projects or do not plan for unforeseen risks thereby dooming projects to fail from the beginning. It is the manager’s responsibilities to monitor the project to ensure that the project stays on schedule and to monitor the customer requirements are aligned with the