Page 149 - DMGT302_FUNDAMENTALS_OF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Fundamentals of Project Management

Notes
Union and from the economic and technological superpower that is China. Margins at the
company were relatively tight and costs were not always stable as a large part of the raw
materials were volatile commodities, such as metals, bought on the international market.
Many of the managers had been educated both at Western universities and at India’s top
universities, with a biased representation, naturally, from engineering and technical
disciplines.

After some years of stiff competition, the company lost out on a contract to supply the key
US export market to a South Korean company. After much reflection—their quality
assurance process was first rate, their manufacturing process efficiency standards were
leading edge, and their own supplier contracts were as tightly negotiated as possible—
managers began to think about applying project management to the whole product life
cycle. Detailed costs were identified and allocated. Responsibility for different stages of
the process was more clearly demarcated and the concept of team ownership of specific
projects was used for the first time. Reward and incentive schemes were initiated and
internal team competitions established. Benchmarks for delivery were created that were
more closely related to cost and schedule, as opposed to previously when the emphasis
had been toward quality and reliability. Within a year the firm had won back that export
contract and improved efficiency enough to bid for another, without increasing the
headcount.
Capacity Management
For the SME, project management need not be too complicated. There do not need to be
large numbers of variables in the spreadsheets and project management software. As
often as not, managing the process of project management can itself become a challenging
job. Therefore, as a director one needs to be aware of the capacity of the individual who is
doing the project management. Too many projects and too much complexity can easily
overwhelm the project management, leading to suboptimal performance and projects
that come in under par. As a rule of thumb, two or three small projects are all that one
person should manage. Don’t overlook the ancillaries that go with projects—attending
meetings, preventing bottlenecks, and defending one’s turf from rival managers who are
aware of the fixed resources available at company level. These can easily detract from the
successful completion of a project.
Project Review and Change

It may be thought this section is self-evident. It isn’t in fact project review and project
change are vital components of both successful and unsuccessful projects. If a project is
going wrong, there has to be a clearly defined set of criteria that set out exactly what must
be done and whose responsibility it is to do it. Typically it will be a director who decides
whether to abort a current project or significantly change the path the project is on. However,
detailed reporting rules need to be agreed on by all team members to ensure that
management is aware of the precise status of a project.
Conclusion
Management and Leadership
These two are inextricably linked: just as manufacturing control is only a small part of
project management, project management is itself only a small part of running a company.
Leadership is key here: not every manager is a leader, nor is every leader a successful
manager quite often the two attributes are very separate. Leadership is for another chapter,
but it is essential if a project manager is to “buy in” the team doing the work he or she
requires of them to his or her vision of why they are doing it. The subtle difference
Contd...

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